This is a parent category so that all of the year categories can fall into it. This should clean up the categories part of the sidebar.
I have a different kind of story to tell, but I think it is an important story for both recovering and non-recovering alumni. I was an intern August 98. I would describe my internship year as a positive experience, but I would like to explain that in more detail. Having read all of the stories […]
Hayley’s Story: How a Pro-TM Alumnus Learned to Listen our Stories Read More »
Moderator’s Note: “Sydney” sent this story in last night. While she prefers to remain anonymous, its important to know that her story is recent and occurred sometime in the last 3 years. In my intern year, the turning point for me, the thing that I think cemented the feeling I had that something wasn’t right,
Sydney’s Story: ESOAL Read More »
Emma’s ESOAL story: I was truly excited for ESOAL. I thought that it would be a great experience, and that pushing myself to my limits would be really good for me. So in the auditorium, we sat in our companies and platoons. General Hasz walks up and says, “So this year we are doing things
Emma’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
Summer started for Global Expeditions in June. I was working in operations in GE, and we had to basically make “Immersion” happen for each wave of missionaries. We had to plan the services, the ceremonies to get them fired up to go, and send them off. Once the missionaries arrived, I was working 7am to
Emma’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
Just before my senior year in high school, I decided that I wanted to take a year off from school after I graduated, to travel or do something different. My grandma offered to pay for most of a 3-month trip to Europe, but I decided to turn that down to go to the HA instead,
Emma’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
It’s been hard to force myself to commit some of these thoughts to “paper”. I don’t spend much time thinking about my Teen Mania days. I don’t really keep in contact with many friends from the internship… and the relationships I still maintain have a kind of depth that doesn’t depend on the Honor Academy
I have been following your blog with much excitement since my wife (HA alumni-99) told me about it several months ago. Although I never attended the Honor Academy, I religiously attended ATF’s through out high school and also went on two TM mission trips. In fact, I talked my wife into going to the Honor
My second year, I started out on the Ministry team. It was great; it was the family I had always longed – for something real. But halfway into that program, they basically told me that I was not working hard enough so I was kicked off. Basically, I felt they were telling me that I
Brandi’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
Moderator’s Note: “Brandi” prefers to retain her anonymity, but I am allowed to tell you that this story took place within the last few years. Two years before coming to the Honor Academy, I was saved from wiccanism at an Acquire the Fire. I didn’t know what to do with my life so I ended
Brandi’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
(Moderator’s Note: This story and the comments below briefly, and with minimal detail, mentions rape.) Life After the Honor Academy: Once home, I received one phone call from a guy friend to see how I was doing, then nothing. It was as if I never existed to TM or any of my friends. I was
Kate’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
I started the Honor Academy in January 1997 just after Teen Mania moved to Garden Valley. Things started out on the wrong foot from the get go. I was under Kim W’s supervision and she seemed to take an instant dislike to me. I later learned that this was partly because Kim was best friends
Kate’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
I have been reading through the RA site here and there, and in the beginning, I will be honest, my thoughts were something like, “Well, good for them. They are hurting and finding a way to work through it.” But I felt disconnected. It has been 15 years since I was part of TM, before
The other major thing I got confronted about constantly was “rebellion.” Any opposing thought or belief not preached to us by our leaders was considered “rebellion.” Had I actually believed everything that people were confronting me about, I would have ended up hanging myself in the Back 40. Thank God (literally) there is grace. Without
Mariana’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
During Gauntlet Week, we had numerous interviews and personality tests. I didn’t know at the time that behind every curtain the Directors of Oz were hiding out listening to our conversations Big Brother-style so they could determine who they wanted for their team for our “ministry placements” (i.e. free youth labor). I had been majoring
Mariana’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
FYI: This story is a 3 part story. I was a sophomore in college when I was called to the Honor Academy. I was living with 4 guys and 2 other girls in a house we dubbed “The Real World.” The majority of us had never met and had found out through a friend-of-a-friend about the rooms
Mariana’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
I hold no ill will toward Teen Mania and have come to terms with my experience, forgiven people, and moved on. However, I feel like I need to share my experience with the board of directors in order potentially improve the Honor Academy as a whole and spare others from a similar experience. My experience
Note from RA: I expect to hear back from the Board of Directors today. If I do, I will post a full update tomorrow morning. When I first started reading about the experiences at TM I was a little skeptical. It led me to think about my experiences at TM. I was a January intern
Somehow with the second semester, all hell broke loose. I hadn’t realized how lonely I would become as the second semester worse on. Many of the people I really confided in had graduated at the end of my first semester. I began to feel very out of place. The powers that be moved me to
Shannon’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
First of all, I’d like to get it straight that I don’t hate Teen Mania. I don’t consider it a cult. I don’t regret having been a part of it. I don’t love Teen Mania. I don’t put it on a pedestal of spiritual perfection. I regret a lot of my choices during the internship
Shannon’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
Editor’s Note: This is the 2nd story of sexual assault I’ve been told in the past 2 weeks. If you have a similar story, this is a safe place to share it. You may remain anonymous.I graduated HA in August of 2004. I was 17 and was sexually assaulted during my Unreached People Group LTE. I
I just want to start off by saying that the Honor Academy was not the worst moments of my life…I’m not bashing it or badmouthing it in any way, I’m just bringing to light that there are those of us (myself and my husband included) that had a very difficult time growing and maintaining our
Ashley’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
(2021 Moderator’s Note: Allie’s Story is part of The Vault, a series of drafts that were discovered in a backup file from 2011. These posts were not published for some reason but are now being published. If you are Bobby and do not want your story to remain published, please email me at recoveringalumni at
The End is near: So all that happens, and then it comes time to apply for a second year. Notice how I haven’t mentioned anything about my 6 month probation from when I wasn’t given a chance to defend myself against an accusation? That’s because I was given a list of requirements, and no one,
Derek’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
I have, since TM, told my story, in part, to Mr. David Hasz, and received a private apology from him. Am I still hurt, and going through things because of how I was treated? Yes. I hope that my story helps someone who has gone through the same things as me. Am I still in
Derek’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
Emotional/Spiritual Abuse This is the area that really pushed me to leave. When I arrived I had been asked about ESOAL (having previously indicated that I knew what it was) to which I stated that I would not participate. From that point on I was treated as though I was mentally ill for not wanting
C.R.’s Story: Honor Academy of the Ozarks, pt 2 Read More »
