Turning Point Academy Prep Year is an opportunity not to go to four years of college, but to be a professional. Dr. Ty Gooch, Founder and President of Turning Point Academy, and Dr. Charlie Kirk, President of the White House Youth Organization, discuss the program and how it will impact the lives of those attending Prep Year.
00:00:04.000Very excited for an announcement from Turning Point Academy.
00:00:07.000How many of you in the audience right now are thinking about going to college, but you know that college might not be for you?
00:00:14.000How many of you are a parent right now or a grandparent, and you have a young grandkid or kid that is like, I don't know if I want to go to this school, and you actually want them to learn something?
00:00:25.000Well, we are here to announce Turning Point Academy prep year.
00:00:28.000And the man behind it all is Dr. Ty Gooch at Turning Point Academy.
00:00:32.000And this is a super exciting announcement and honestly blessed that we're able to talk about this.
00:00:38.000Become a member today, members.charliekirk.com.
00:01:10.000His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:01:18.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
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00:01:58.000What is Turning Point Academy Prep Year?
00:02:01.000It is the culmination of what you and Dr. Hutz Hertzberg, Chief Education Officer, have been working on to prepare students for life, to be leaders, to have impact, and if they go on to college, to be ready to be influencers when they get there.
00:02:16.000And so essentially what it is, and I want to get into the specifics, is that this is an opportunity not to go to four-year college, but to be a professional.
00:02:33.000Training of the Mind, whole life transformation.
00:02:36.000The program will include mentors that come in, like yourself, to help students understand economics from a biblical worldview perspective and how to read and process through the great writings of Western civilization in a way that has a biblical infusion of truth at the foundation of them.
00:02:51.000Yeah, so walk through technically how this works.
00:02:54.000So someone is going to – we already have people that have signed up, and people can check it out at turningpointacademy.com.
00:03:05.000And we already have some people that have signed up, and they are going to do what exactly?
00:03:10.000They move into dorms, and they're going to really create what college should be.
00:03:13.000Yeah, but that would be a short – Yes.
00:03:29.000experience on the outside is the way that their hearts and lives will be transformed.
00:03:32.000There'll be a week-long modular training format where, from a classical education perspective, helping students learn with rhetoric, helping students learn in a collegial style of learning where they don't just listen from lecture content, but they actually learn to engage and to think.
00:03:48.000And then, with virtue and wisdom, how to apply the truths that they're learning.
00:04:31.000So that experience, though, it was one where I learned myself to learn to engage with what it meant to stand for my faith.
00:04:38.000So I went from there and got a Master's of Divinity, and not a PhD, but a doctorate in ministry, which is relevant for this program because of the application of truth to life.
00:04:47.000And so as a part of this last 25 years of serving in ministry, mostly pastoral, I've also been in Christian education.
00:04:55.000Just focused on teaching seniors in high school biblical worldview at a couple of different Christian schools, at a Bible college, a senior seminar, capstone classroom program context where it's so evident students need to learn to finish well so they can go be influencers right away.
00:05:11.000Young leaders already leading in many ways.
00:05:14.000Now, being prepared not just to go and sort of flail in the context of the ideologies that are being pumped out by some institutions, but to go and to flourish in what it means to be girded up in their faith and to influence others toward the ways of Christ.
00:05:29.000Making America great again starts with making America healthy again.
00:07:13.000What does stewardship look like of the gifts that I've been given, also of the resources that I've been able to glean, of the talents and skills?
00:07:21.000So all of that in addition to some of the more nuanced aspects of intellect, right?
00:07:27.000The Bible makes it super clear, Charlie, super clear, that the beginning of knowledge and wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
00:07:54.000So you did that for 20 years, you said, about?
00:07:56.000In large part, yes, but then in Christian education, as a guest lecturer, as an overseer of interns for undergrad and master's students, yes.
00:08:03.000What did you see that changed over the years when you taught this to students?
00:09:16.000And this is the most unique opportunity that a student, especially a student that wants to go be a leader, Could have.
00:09:21.000Because of generous donors, building on the foundation of Turning Point Academy where we have the Educator Summit coming up July 10th through the 13th for all educators across the globe.
00:09:32.000But this opportunity is time sensitive because we've had generous donors donate the equivalent of $20,000 scholarships for every student that's accepted.
00:09:48.000The students that get accepted, they'll pay $1,000 deposit fee just to let us know that they're seriously committed after they go through the intervention process.
00:10:24.000We are overrun right now with people quoting from the Bible out in culture saying, oh, this is Jesus, this is truth.
00:10:31.000and they're really not representing the truth of Jesus at all.
00:10:34.000They're representing what they thought culture Instead of that, let's push culture aside.
00:10:42.000Let's let the Scriptures speak for themselves.
00:10:44.000And then let the Scriptures define culture, which is so much of what you do and what you have done with Turning Point in many, many regards.
00:10:50.000So, hermeneutics, how to study the Bible.
00:11:06.000Look at the text, see what the author is saying to the original audience, learn from the scriptures based on what it objectively says, and then let's figure out how to live it out.
00:11:15.000And so let's apply that then to, would you say that most students coming into Prep Year have had a Christian education of some sort?
00:11:32.000Some are worship leaders at their churches or in their context.
00:11:36.000Some are already super skilled in the area of graphic design and photography, etc.
00:11:42.000All of them have a testimony of how the gospel of Christ has already impacted their lives.
00:11:48.000Many of them already have begun to lead in spiritual context on their campuses or in their homeschool context, and now they're just eager for somebody to come alongside them to help them grow in what they've done.
00:12:00.000One of the students we learned through the interview process, she had just written a document to the local governor to challenge the A 30-page document, well written, presented it.
00:12:18.000So we get on this interview and then she says, well, I just got back from this event, right?
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00:13:33.000The end result success would be after nine months of Turning Point Academy prep year.
00:13:37.000Students will have been thoroughly exposed to what it looks like to walk with Christ because of a biblical understanding of prayer life and spiritual pursuits.
00:13:45.000They will be involved in what it means to also go and serve in the community in various contexts.
00:13:51.000They'll take trips to the capital of the state that we're in.
00:13:56.000And at the end, they'll be fortified in their understanding of biblical worldview in a way that equips them to walk into a myriad of different opportunities, whether it's military, whether it's entrepreneurship in the marketplace, whether it's going to focus on preparing to be a business.
00:14:13.000Yeah, you know, the biggest problem facing Oftentimes marketed as something that it used to be, that it no longer is, right?
00:14:38.000Something that's going to help students understand how to think properly.
00:14:43.000And I wouldn't suggest that that's what it is.
00:14:45.000I just remember sitting at this incredible institution, undergrad, receiving class or lecture, and the professor espouses this content.
00:14:53.000And I'm a freshman, and I thought, oh, he's telling us these facts.
00:16:00.000You couldn't have a better first-year start because the leaders, Dr. Dockery and at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, so many like-minded leaders there, the provost and the dean of students, great leaders that are going to help us just by helping the environment be created and to create a means through which students might find another one of the pathways, which is academia.
00:16:23.000Maybe they're not a lawyer, but they go into the academia context and get degrees that will have helpful payoff, not just for what they benefit from financially, but how they can impact the culture.
00:16:33.000And they'll also be exposed to the civic virtues as well from a biblical perspective, correct?
00:16:40.000Why is it that self-government and free speech are biblical?
00:16:47.000On turningpointacademy.com, there are resources for young students and older students alike to understand the Constitution, to understand the Bill of Rights, to walk through economics.
00:16:58.000And our leader, Jennifer Burns, the director of academics, she's laid out a great set of resources.
00:17:04.000Well, when these students get into the prep year program, they're going to walk through They'll understand that as you related to free speech.
00:17:14.000You chatted a little bit about that just recently.
00:17:16.000And to understand that even from Exodus, for instance, everybody knows the story of Exodus where the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.
00:17:26.000Everybody thinks it's about them being treated poorly, which that did matter to God's heart.
00:17:31.000But the most redundant, the most thorough expression of concern that God had is that they weren't free.
00:17:40.000And so, yes, we will help students understand the importance of having the right to free speech, having the right to gather freedom freely, and to express worship to God in the ways that He described.
00:17:51.000It is God's heart for humanity and for His people to live in a free society.
00:18:00.000Tyranny is not in God's plan for His people.
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00:19:15.000The students are going to be in a cohort format, so they'll be on this campus in this retreat center-like context, and they'll wake up in the morning.
00:19:22.000It'll be mostly classroom context in the morning, where there'll be an expert that comes in for the given week to focus on content, not just delivery, but content exchange, helping the students work through how to apply what Yep.
00:20:28.000If I'm a parent sending my kid off to a place I've never been to before, super safe.
00:20:32.000The environment there is everything a parent could want and more.
00:20:36.000And it will also lead itself to what college should be, which means partnership.
00:20:41.000And talk about some of the instructors.
00:20:44.000You yourself will be presenting quite a lot.
00:20:47.000And I can't think of almost any other college where they'll get this kind of singular instruction because the class sizes, quote-unquote, will not be hundreds of people.
00:21:06.000The intentionality, the ability to interact with the mentors, not just in that context, but also, Lord willing, long term.
00:21:13.000And so that exchange is going to be super valuable, in addition to the students learning to take what they learn and take it back to where they go to next.
00:21:22.000Yeah, so let's talk more about, just for a second here, equipping disciples, because that really is the goal.
00:21:29.000And what would you say are some of the, not just approaches, the hermeneutical ones, But also, just from a theological perspective, some of the things that you've learned, and I know you touched on this, but some errors that you want to try to write at this work you're doing at Turning Point Academy.
00:21:47.000Yeah, you know, the Apostle Paul makes some things super clear, and in parts in the book of Acts, and in some of Luke's writings, but there's this tension that exists.
00:21:58.000And the tension is, am I going to choose to please man?
00:22:03.000Or am I going to choose to please God?
00:22:07.000And also in Romans 12 and several other places, right?
00:22:11.000And so as it relates to that, students are going to understand there's some things that God not only asks, not only invites, but He commands these things of us.
00:22:20.000And then He says, you know, you can't do both in Galatians 1.10.
00:22:51.000time-tested truth-tellers with humility and strength and grace all wrapped up in one packet.
00:22:57.000So I would say that's what makes it distinctive.
00:22:58.000It's not just information being delivered, but it's with courage and clarity, which is another thing that Paul says, just make open statements of the truth.
00:23:33.000Because if you don't choose to proclaim the gospel of Christ and Jesus Christ resurrected, then you have the risk of teaching people to follow you and avoiding following God.
00:23:45.000Because then the power now is about me, and it's not.
00:24:40.000They can go right to phase two right now.
00:24:42.000And they can fill out the application and then send off their reference forms.
00:24:46.000After which, we will set them up for an interview, and the process will get going from there.
00:24:50.000I will say that what you've put together and the team has put together at Turning Point Academy, this will be far more life-changing than just another year at a college.
00:26:01.000And you might be just drifting, or you might just kind of be wondering, this is pretty, it's an amazing opportunity, right?
00:26:07.000That you could go in Fort Worth, Texas, and combine foundational classical, Christian, and civic curriculum with immersive skill-based environment.
00:26:48.000And so it's already lined up, contract signed, committed to work with our partners at Judson University with Dr. Kroom there.
00:26:54.000Well, then the other advantage is that since they're on a college campus, they get some of the campus vibe or activities and energy, right?