Honor Academy
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| The Honor Academy | |
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| Motto: | Semper Honorablus |
| Established: | 1988 |
| President: | Ron Luce |
| Executive Director: | David Hasz |
| Staff: | 141 |
| Undergraduates: | 725 |
| Location: | Garden Valley, Texas, United States |
| Part of a series on |
| Teen Mania Ministries |
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| Battle Cry Campaign |
| Honor Academy |
| People |
| Ron Luce |
The Honor Academy is a ministry of the Christian missionary organization Teen Mania Ministries, with a main campus located in Garden Valley, Texas. The Academy offers a year-long internship program for young people based upon the biblical text known as the Great Commission. Although the Honor Academy itself is not accredited, interns have the opportunity to earn up to 30 credits through a partnership with Sterling College.
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[edit] Mission Statement
Empowering Godly men and women to possess wisdom, vision, and discipline to excel as leaders whose lives advance the Kingdom. [2]
[edit] Internship program
Through weekly classes, small group sessions (Core Groups), and Life Transforming Events (LTEs) throughout the one year internship, strong emphasis is placed on developing one's character and living an honorable life before God and man. There are five core values by which interns and alumni have committed to live: Faith, Integrity, Relationships, Excellence and Vision.
Interns over the years have developed statements that express this commitment, such as "Semper Honorablus" and "Always honorable, for life."
Upon graduating from the Honor Academy, interns receive a ring to symbolize commitment to a lifelong pursuit of God. This ring is called the Honor Ring. In the past, the inscription on the ring was Hebrew for "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." This refers to the Academy's passionate pursuit of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, the ring bears the Honor Academy crest and says "Semper Honorablus."
[edit] Rules and regulations
The Academy holds to typical fundamental Christian principles of purity, strongly discouraging all forms of sin, especially while interns are in training at the Academy. This includes the view that any pre-marital sexual activity, including non-intercourse sexual contact, masturbation, and homosexual practices, is sinful. Interns in training at the academy are forbidden to listen to secular music, watch R-rated movies, or go out on dates with anyone, intern or otherwise. Male interns are not allowed to use the Internet out of sight of another Honor Academy intern or staff member during the first semester of the internship, also shorter hair length is recommended, and daily shaving is required. Interns are not allowed to wear "immodest" attire, such as short skirts, tight shorts, halter tops, muscle/tank tops, etc. A curfew is enforced for all first-year interns--12 AM during weekdays and 1 AM on weekends. This is all in keeping with the understanding that the year is to be focused on finding each intern's individual purpose in life without distraction. [3]
While the Academy's rules may seem overly stringent or even unfair to some prospects and outsiders, the rules and regulations are completely consistent with most fundamental Christian youth groups, church-based schools, and private Christian universities and bible colleges. Similar rules are also often seen in secular boarding schools, charter schools, military schools, and religious parochial, Christian, Jewish, Catholic schools, or secular private schools and academies, all of which also generally teach a strong personal discipline to varying degrees. Such rules are intended to remove external distractions and forbidden extracurricular activities, so interns can properly focus on the core curriculum and other training activities. A secondary purpose of the Honor Academy code is to develop discipline, the third of four Pillars of the Honor Academy.
The Honor Academy also offers a Graduate Intern program which lasts at least one year and at most two years. Graduate Interns are given more responsibilities and more freedoms. The current Graduate internships include Ministry Team (MT), Core Advisor (CA), Resident Manager (RM), Management Associate (MA), and Band of Servants (BOS). January & August Graduates may also opt for Graduate Intern Intense Elective Training (GIIET). During this time GIs (Graduate Interns) are allowed to listen to secular music in private, play video games, date after 8 months in this program, and have no curfew.
[edit] Campus
The Honor Academy's main campus is located in rural East Texas, near the city of Tyler. The campus occupies the former site of Last Days Ministries (founded by Keith Green in the mid-1970s). It offers activities for interns including courts for volleyball, beach volleyball, basketball (indoor and outdoor), tennis, a football field, a soccer field, paintball fields, and a swimming pool. There is also a cafeteria which also houses and Intern Lounge. The campus has technical training facilities for sound and light production, and a Center for Creative Media.
There are four dormitories located on the south end of the campus in a horseshoe-shape. Each dorm is dedicated in remembrance of someone who has had an influence on Christian missions. Morris Hall is dedicated in memory of Samuel Morris; Green Hall for Keith Green, Carey Hall for William Carey and Elliot Hall for Jim Elliot.
The northern portion of Teen Mania's property is referred to as the "Back 40" and is approximately 450 acres (1.8 km²) of undeveloped land. Interns and staff can use this area for mountain biking, hiking and camping. Also located north of the campus is ETAC, the East Texas Adventure Course. This is a recreational adventure facility, containing a complete high and low ropes element course, utilized by many departments within Teen Mania, especially Extreme Camps.
In February 2007, the Honor Academy announced a northern campus in Bloomington, Minnesota, established in partnership with Bethany College of Missions.
[edit] Extracurricular Activies
IET (Intensive Elective Training)
IET, which lasts 18 weeks all together, is broken down into three six-week phases.
Phase 1: (Led by Randy Olsson) Involves a lot of reading, some interviewing, etc.
Phase 2: (Led by Heath Stoner) Involves creativity, starting a business, and plenty of reading, etc.
Phase 3: (Led by David Hasz) Involves a strict eating plan, lots of exercise, some reading, and a few other things to mentally sharpen the participants.
Graduates from IET are given an elite status: PUMA (Performing Under Much Adversity).
