The Vision

Heart of America

The Vision of Heart of America

At HOA, we dedicate ourselves to providing a professional and encouraging learning environment. We believe in the adage, “Rising tides raise all ships.” Students of all ages perform for peers and supporters in a competitive environment. These experiences prepare students to be fearless and self-confident as they emerge into the workforce and higher education with critical life skills.



Student Choir Competitions



OUR VALUES

The Heart of America is our values. As the nation's premier student travel festival organization, what drives us is simple. We maintain our goals of enriching students’ lives through experiential travel by dedication to these essential values:

Integrity and Fairness – The art of adjudicating live performance is not easy. Through a series of steps, including a third-party off-site scoring system to which HOA staff have limited or no access, an adjudicator fairness agreement and hiring a qualified, diverse and unbiased panel, we can create a culture of integrity and fairness at each of our events. Our assessment method serves as both educational and informative for our competing groups. We infuse our events with multiple layers of experiences. The reason? So that every group performing feels they have various opportunities to succeed in their passion and efforts.

Passion and Professionalism – It takes a village to create our large-scale events. Our dedicated Heart of America production team creates rich and rewarding experiences for all involved. We hand-pick our seasonal staff for positions such as emcee, stage manager, host groups and beyond. From our in-house year-round team to our onsite greeters at each location, we want every student, guest, spectator and director to feel welcome, appreciated and respected. We strive to go above and beyond to make our guests experience these ideals.

Doing the Right Thing – Heart of America takes great pride in always doing the right thing for our guests. Each circumstance is unique and by guiding ourselves with our other values, we have always managed to solve any occasion seeming fair to both the guest and our company. We do not sacrifice relationships with an individual or a group to turn a profit. Nor do we compromise our values to make an individual or group happy. We believe that doing the right thing builds trust and long-term relationships.