Honor Academy

Infobox_University
name = The Honor Academy
native_name =
latin_name =


motto = Semper Honorablus
established = 1988
type =
endowment =
staff = 100
faculty =
president = Ron Luce
provost =
executive director =
rector =
chancellor =
vice_chancellor =
dean =
head_label = Executive Director
head = David Hasz
students =
undergrad = 400
postgrad =
doctoral =
city = Garden Valley
state = Texas
country = United States
campus =
free_label =
free =
colors = Blue, Gold and White
colours =
mascot =
nickname =
affiliations =
website = http://www.honoracademy.com

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.

{category|} [http://www.honoracademy.com/qanda.php]

Mission Statement

Empowering Godly men and women to possess wisdom, vision, and discipline to excel as leaders whose lives advance the Kingdom. [http://web.archive.org/web/20040612224106/http://www.honoracademy.com/downloads/HA_Handbook.pdf]

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. Currently the ring bears the Honor Academy crest and says "Semper Honorablus."

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 to have a dating relationship 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, hair must be well kept according to a predetermined standard, 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. [http://web.archive.org/web/20040612224106/http://www.honoracademy.com/downloads/HA_Handbook.pdf]

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.

The Honor Academy also offers a Graduate Intern (GI) program which lasts at least one year. Graduate Interns are given more responsibilities and more freedoms. The current Graduate internships include Ministry Team (MT), Core Advisor (CA), Resident Manager (RM) and Management Associate (MA). January graduates may also opt for Graduate Intern Intense Elective Training (GIIET). Discontinued Graduate Intern Programs include Band of Servants (BOS) and Leadership Professionals (LP). During this time 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.

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, three paintball fields, and a swimming pool. There is also a cafeteria with dorm rooms and an Intern Lounge. The campus has technical training facilities for sound and light production, and a Center for Creative Media.

The main work area of campus is the Epicenter. Here, most of the internship runs the ministry of Teen Mania. The occupations (or better known as "ministry placements") include administrative assistance (AA) for staff, logistical organization for events, IT work to keep the computers and network of Teen Mania running, Marketing, Web Development, handling intern concerns, quality control, financial work. and making calls for events such as Acquire The Fire, Battle Cry, Group Adventures, and Extreme Camps.

The campus itself is run by the facilities department. Facilities is made of several sub departments. K-crew (Kitchen) who work out of the cafeteria, Custodial, Grounds & Maintenance, main room and Safety who work out of the ware house in the back part of the main campus area, and the Clinic.

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 convert|450|acre|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 and a brand new Navy SEAL grade obstacle 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.

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 (Persevering Under Much Adversity).

Shattered Clay

Shattered Clay is the Drama group that performs skits, theater drama, and short stories.

Driven -Human Video

"DRiVEN" is a drama group that plays as characters in a story; the story being told through music. They often perform for intermissions of Shattered Clay performances.

Potter's Desire

Potter's Desire is a dance group made up of interns that perform at various events.

Production Crew

Production Crew (some times referred to as P-Crew) does all the lights, sound and much of the set up and tear down of performances.

External links

* [http://www.honoracademy.com Honor Academy web site]
* [http://www.teenmania.com Teen Mania Ministries web site]
* [http://www.haalumni.com Honor Academy Alumni Association web site]