Mission Update: Tourism Honors Academy Teens Reveal Amazing Creativity

Tourism Honors Academy Teens Reveal Amazing Creativity  

     According to their website, the mission of the Tourism Honors Academy (THA) is "to enhance the academic and career preparation of gifted young people who have overcome adversity to achieve through hands-on exploration of the hospitality and tourism industry."

     Recently, THA's Kyle Ware and a group of his gifted teens made an overnight stay at Wayside Christian Mission's Hotel Louisville.  The purpose of their visit was to develop ideas to enhance the Mission's Work Therapy Program.  Hotel Louisville is, in fact, a training facility that is staffed primarily by women and men in the Mission's recovery program.  The hotel offers real hands-on job experience that is coupled with formal classroom training.  Knowing this, the teenage guests were giving the daunting task of improving an already successful program.  And so they did!  These creative teams developed ideas that can be implemented by the Mission.  Among their ideas are such concepts as job shadowing, professional mentoring, and job rotation.  The students also created a PowerPoint presentation that will be shown to participants in the Mission's Work Therapy Program. 

     We are grateful to Kyle Ware, his associates, and his amazing teens!  The Tourism Honors Academy is a program that expands their students' horizons while making learning a whole lot of fun!  We hope to host a new group of THA teens next year!