Kentucky Hidden Wonders
Uncover the best-kept secrets of the Bluegrass State with Kentucky Hidden Wonders, the podcast that takes you beyond the usual tourist attractions and into the heart of Kentucky’s hidden gems. From historic small towns and scenic backroads to underrated attractions and local legends, we shine a light on the unique places and experiences that make Kentucky truly unforgettable.
Each episode explores off-the-beaten-path destinations, secret hiking trails, charming local businesses, fascinating history, and must-visit spots in Shelby County and beyond. Whether you're a Kentucky native, a curious traveler, or someone looking for your next road trip idea, Kentucky Hidden Wonders will inspire you to explore the rich culture, outdoor adventures, and undiscovered beauty of the Bluegrass State.
Join us as we share insider tips, intriguing stories, and travel inspiration to help you experience Kentucky like never before. Subscribe now and start planning your next adventure!
Kentucky Hidden Wonders
How a Small School in Shelby County is Shaping Kentucky's Future Leaders
We explore Cornerstone Christian Academy with Advancement Director Annette Hill, discovering how this 42-year-old institution is shaping the future leaders of Shelby County through faith-based education and community involvement.
- Cornerstone Christian Academy is a non-denominational pre-K through 12th grade school with approximately 330 students
- The school offers a unique Greek language program instead of traditional foreign languages, benefiting students pursuing ministry, missions, archaeology, and medical fields
- New flexible scheduling allows secondary students more choices, including specialized courses in pre-law and forensics
- 90% of graduates remain in Shelby County, contributing to the local community as leaders
- The Fall Festival on September 12th (6-9pm) will feature vendors, games, hay rides, a senior cake decorating competition, and more
- Half of the festival proceeds support the Cornerstone Fund while the other half helps fund the senior class trip
- The school focuses on developing character, moral compass, and values alongside academic excellence
For more information about Cornerstone Christian Academy or to inquire about enrollment, call 502-633-4070.
🎙️ Kentucky Hidden Wonders is presented by ShelbyKY Tourism.
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🎙️ Kentucky Hidden Wonders is hosted by Janette Marson and Mason Warren and edited by Ethan Fisher.
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Welcome to Kentucky Hidden Wonders. I'm Jeanette Marson and I'm Mason Warren. Together, we're uncovering the secrets, stories and hidden gems of Shelby County.
Speaker 2:Kentucky From unforgettable places to off-the-beaten-path adventures. Join us as we explore Kentucky treasures and Shelby County's best-kept secrets.
Speaker 1:Hi everyone. Our guest today is Annette Hill and I'm going to let her tell you her title. But she is with Cornerstone Christian Academy right here in Shelby County and, annette, we are so happy to have you Give us your title one more time. I know it had advancement in it. You are advancing all things, but what is it exactly?
Speaker 3:Hello, I am so honored to be here. Thank you both for inviting me to share a little bit of my story. My official title is Advancement Director for Cornerstone Christian Academy.
Speaker 1:That was it that was it. I knew you were advancing all things, so what is what?
Speaker 3:does that entail? What is that? You know, it's probably one of the most misunderstood words and positions in any academic environment Well, any nonprofit environment and it encompasses a lot of different things. But basically, advancement, overseas fundraising is always a big big thing. Relationships in the community, communications, marketing In our case, often admissions is under the umbrella and it's just about being an ambassador for your school and managing the messaging at all levels.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. Well, Cornerstone Christian Academy, I know there's wonderful students and you all are doing wonderful things. Talk a little bit about the school and the mission and just let our listeners know a little bit more about the academy.
Speaker 3:This is a school that's been around a long time. This year we are graduating our 42nd class and it's a strong class. It's a dynamic class, it's a class that is full of movers and shakers, and many of the parents are highly involved in our community and have been dedicated to Cornerstone for a long, long time. We are super, super excited about the changes that are going on at Cornerstone Christian Academy. You know, sometimes a small school starts and it stays a small school for a long, long time. But our board of directors chose several years ago that they wanted to grow, they wanted to offer more to families, and so we are in the process of fulfilling that mission that we were charged with.
Speaker 3:Now are you elementary through high school? Yes, ma'am, in fact we are pre-K through 12th grade. Oh, that's wonderful. Okay, and we've been averaging about 330 students a year, which we kind of made an uptick about three years ago, and it's exciting to see it grow, in fact some years. We have a space problem which always adds to creative moving kids around.
Speaker 1:Now are you a certain denomination, or can anybody enroll, or how does that work?
Speaker 3:I love that we are a non-denominational school. We ask that families agree with our statement of faith and that they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Sometimes we know that if a family is of one faith and a school is of another, the child can become confused, and we never want that for any student. We want to partner with the families and walk along and allow the child to flourish in a holistic environment that matches the shared values of the parents.
Speaker 1:Gotcha Wonderful. So what are some classes that you offer at Cornerstone Christian Academy that might be of interest to parents, maybe in speaking more high school level? I mean, do they have foreign languages? Do you still have the arts and all of those kind of opportunities?
Speaker 3:Our secondary campus is going through an evolution right now. We have a brand new dean of students and he and our head of school, mr Hill, have come together with a new flex schedule that's allowing our students some choices, more choices than they've ever had this year. We've got some new classes. We're offering a pre-law class, we're offering a forensic class. Matt Maxwell and Dr Barber are two master teachers and they manage all of our math and our sciences, and they manage all of our math and our sciences and we're graduating students that are ready to go into college to study engineering, all kinds of medical fields. It's really, really exciting. Yes, to answer your question, we do offer foreign language, but it's an unusual language. We offer Greek. Oh wow, that is unusual. It aligns with our mission as far as being a Bible-based worldview school and we have found that our students just flourish. In fact, our Greek 2 students came in and had to take a Greek 1 exam the first week and 97% of them passed with flying colors.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's wonderful so it sticks and because a lot of our kids go into fields where Greek will be handy and help, we found it to be beneficial. So we're new in the program but it's flourishing and the kids love it.
Speaker 2:So what are those fields? I'm just curious where Greek is of use. Oh, I was so interested in that question, I'm glad you asked it. So what are those fields?
Speaker 1:I'm just curious where Greek is of use. Oh, I was so interested in that question. I'm glad you asked it. Yes, do tell Ms Annette, I'm concerned, I can't. You can do it, I know you can.
Speaker 3:Well, they could always travel to Greece, there's that Well first of all and foremost, many of our students choose to go to the mission field, and Not necessarily as a career, but as just an offering that they choose to do through their church or whatever. Some of them will be pastors, and that will be essential in understanding the Word of God, really understanding what does a word mean? I think so often God's Word can be misunderstood, and so it just equips them. I think there are words, you know, we talk about Latin, we talk about some of these words that are core to understanding medical terminology and those kind of things, and so, although I'm not an expert in Greek and I'm not an expert per se as to best use, we just find that it's been very, very beneficial in the core of understanding that God's Word matters.
Speaker 3:And I think at Cornerstone it is about mastering subjects, it's about uncovering profound truths and building a foundation for lifelong success. And you know college expectations have changed, requirements have changed and it's kind of funny to me. You know, back when I was in college, you know French, spanish, you know those were the languages that everybody had to graduate with and you had to have two years to get into the college of your choice or the university of your choice, and today not so much and that really allows for students to explore all kinds of avenues, and we love that. With small classes we can do that, sure.
Speaker 1:I just thought of another job that would be great with Greek, the Greek language archaeology, absolutely. You know, I found this document not document parchment in the desert, and now I can read it. So ooh that would be a great job.
Speaker 3:We have things like we have a full lab, so we have chemistry and biology. We have apologetics, which is the understanding of God's Word. It's another Bible class. Our students have to have Bible every year. They're there and I think sometimes when we again, it's just part of understanding God's Word. How do we defend what we believe and why do we believe it? It doesn't do us any good to just have it memorized if we don't use it. And that's our heart's desire is that our students not only learn, but they can apply it and use it for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Anything else you'd like to add about the school itself before we move on to another.
Speaker 2:Change gears a little bit.
Speaker 1:Before we change gears just a little bit.
Speaker 3:I think education is such an interesting field. I have been involved in education for 25 years in my career and then I was a child of educators and it's always changing. And I think when we sit down around the table at Cornerstone we talk about to me that they are a beautifully knit community group, that they want their families to stay, they want their family's children to stay, and when we every class that we graduate, we look and say how will you impact Shelby County? Because we know that 90% of those students will stay in town. They'll stay in the area, and how exciting will it be to see what the future holds for each of them as they give back to this precious place we call Shelby County.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think our whole county is full of leaders. In fact, deputy Judge John Park and he'll be so excited I mentioned his name in the podcast has started using a hashtag of Shelby Leeds, shelby County, leeds. So, yes, I think, whether it's tourism or education, there's a whole county full of leaders and I'm so glad that you have leadership as a priority at your academy as well. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:Well, we are blessed that our kids many of them go through the Young Leaders Program here. Oh, right. Yeah, and we're just so blessed to be invited into these spaces and give our kids these offerings, whether it be through county, through Rotary, through Kiwanis, whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1:We're grateful. Well, you've got some special events coming up. I know you said fundraising is definitely a part of your job description, so tell us a little bit about some of the things that the community could maybe be involved with, whether it's an open house or a festival, or just give us a variety of different things where community can be involved.
Speaker 3:September 12th is a Friday night and it's just weeks away, and one of our favorite events is our fall festival and we've done this every year for quite some time and it's an evening when community friends come, all of our families come. We will have anywhere from three to four plus hundred guests wander through our halls and it's a fun night of just community. We have vendors. This year we have somewhere between 22 and 25 vendors and you have all kinds of things that you can browse and sell for and even though September is way ahead of the holiday I don't know about y'all, but I'm thinking about the holiday and it's a great time to pick up a few Christmas items. One of my favorite vendors is Packard Customs Creation and they're going to be there with their woodwork and they do all kinds of custom clothing and lasering just all kinds of really beautiful gifts.
Speaker 3:There'll be dinner. We're having walking tacos. That's what we're having and Walmart's been very gracious. Dano's has been very gracious to us and blessed us with generous donations. We have got games for kids. We have hatchet throws, a pumpkin golf, a bull lasso. We've got an obstacle course set up in the soccer field. That'll be huge. We've got a photo booth, all kinds of options, but I think we're bringing something new this year. Our seniors are going to do something called have a cake war and, as we all know, right now, cooking shows are kind of the thing, and so we have got seniors that will be in teams and they will have pre-made cakes and we will give them a period of time whether it be 30 or 45 minutes and they will compete to decorate their cakes.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 3:And then our guests can vote and we'll see who we crown in the senior class. So is there a charge for the festival? Like to attend? Not to attend but to participate? There is. So if you want to be part of the activities, if you want to play games we have a fire pit with s'mores and all those kind of things you can purchase tickets when you arrive. We'll have three or four different stations where tickets can be purchased so that lines won't be long and lengthy and laborious. And we have hay rides. We have great hay rides. We sit on about 35 acres of land oh wow.
Speaker 3:And so we have two different tractors running all evening that are fun to participate in Pumpkin painting, face painting. Our eighth graders have a booth at these and I think one of the neat things about the way this fundraiser is designed is that half of the money goes to what we call our Cornerstone Fund, and the Cornerstone Fund is a yearly fund that we fill and use throughout the year. It helps families, it allows us to increase programs. It's just that kind of that general fund that really helps the student experience significantly. Secondly, the seniors get the other half of it and they raise money all four years for this spectacular senior trip they go on at the end of their high school career and again it aligns with Shelby County values, community matters, and these kids go away and just really cherish and talk about their experiences and they solidify their relationship and we know that for years to come these kids are going to be really good friends.
Speaker 1:I'm really curious where do they get to go on their senior trip? They choose oh wow. I remember my senior trip and they took us out to the wilds of North Carolina. It was wild, and then after that everybody went to New York City. I was very disappointed.
Speaker 2:I think ours was New York City as well. Well, that's very fancy.
Speaker 3:In Oregon, where I graduated, we didn't do anything like that. I think we had a service project for our final event of the year. The last couple of years they've gone. They basically go to a beach somewhere, rent a huge house and the beach changes, yeah, but Well, that sounds wonderful.
Speaker 1:Kentuckians love the beach. Yes, yes, we do, yes, we do. It sounds better than the wild Not too far away either Definitely. That's well, I love the festival. Not too far away either? Definitely Well, I love the festival. I love the festival idea. People are crazy over fall and so September 12th, and then what time does that start?
Speaker 3:Starts at 6. Usually we wrap up at 9. And of course it will be decorated for harvest and lots of pumpkins and there'll be a silent auction. There'll be all kinds of desserts and all kinds of harvest food, which is absolutely delightful, so all kinds of things. We have a hatchet throw. You ever thrown a hatchet, mason?
Speaker 2:I can't say that I have Swing by.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think.
Speaker 2:I will.
Speaker 1:Was that a pun?
Speaker 2:I might, so we'll see.
Speaker 1:Swing by. That is wonderful. Anything else you'd like to add about your wonderful academy? I am still impressed with the Greek language and all that you could do with that. Definitely so if those listening would like your child to learn Greek you know which school.
Speaker 3:That is an option indeed, I think one of the privileges of being a little smaller. And every educational system has incredible value. I've worked both public and private schools and get to shape their character. We instill their moral compass, we nurture solid values and we equip them to overcome challenges ahead. And due to our size, we can focus on these things intently. And what a privilege to be able to partner with parents, and the longer I'm here, the more I realize I need a chart to understand you all. You are all related at so many different levels and I will be meeting a parent for the first time and they will say, oh, I was related to so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so and you know the judge executive and you know the mayor and you know so-and-so and I'm related and I think that's one of the most beautiful things of this community. I have often said that this is a community of promise and hope and Cornerstone Christian Academy is working hard to be a valuable partner in this community and make a difference in any way we can.
Speaker 1:That's very, very good, Wonderful. I'm so glad you're on Now. You are such a beautiful person inside and out and you have such a wonderful speaking voice. Tell our listeners just quickly a little bit of your background I know you said you were a broadcaster and just a little bit, Just let us get to know you just a little bit before we leave.
Speaker 3:My career has been a crazy potpourri of all kinds of unnecessary things. I was privileged to have a bachelor's and a master's degree and to work in five different industries. I started my career in public relations and broadcasting and some of those kind of things and wove my way through banking and landed in education, just as a mom, as a young mom, and became very passionate about fundraising and worked with foundations and had the privilege to end up being a school superintendent at one time in Oregon and that was such an incredible honor. And my pathway there was through business and fundraising and development and marketing and I was incredibly, incredibly privileged to be able to influence the next generation and I've done so for about 25 years now and had a quick step over into the university realm and I am just privileged beyond measure to be selected to help shape the next generation, to be strong leaders and to be impactful citizens.
Speaker 3:And that's what we want for all of our kids All right.
Speaker 2:Well, so one more time when? Where is the festival September?
Speaker 3:12th. The festival is at Cornerstone Christian Academy. September 12th. Doors will open at 6 pm. Tickets are sold at the door and we would love to have you join us. And if you have any questions about Cornerstone Christian Academy, please feel free to give me a call. I can be reached at 502-633-4070. And, again, we would love to have you stop by.
Speaker 2:Perfect Well we've got it on our calendar and I'm sure it'll be a good event.
Speaker 3:So thank you for being here. Appreciate your time. Thank you both.
Speaker 2:Kentucky Hidden Wonders is a Shelby KY Tourism production. Your hosts are Janet Marson and Mason Warren. To learn more about Shelby KY Tourism and to start planning a visit, head to visitshelbykycom.
