TICE Visual Media & Publication students welcomed speaker, Tom Woodard, founder of On the Avenue and The Ability Machine. Woodard is a native, Nashvillian and attended a private Christian high school. He confessed to students that even though he gave his life to Christ as a teen, he considered himself more of a selfish Chrisitan until later in life. He was a Christian that prayed to God asking what God can do for him. Decades later, he understood what he should be asking instead, is what can he do for the Kingdom of God? This is when God opened his eyes to a business running next door to his advertising agency. 

Next door to him was a boxing company that employed disabled adults. One day, he went and spoke to some of the workers and asked them what they would do if they had the chance to work in the advertising business. He was so impressed with the answers, the untapped talent, and the passion he witnessed that he opened On the Avenue, a training studio that allows people with disabilities to flourish. The studio provides training for relationship building, life skills training, workshops, creative services, production, videography, photography, writing, digital, graphic design, illustration, and individual assignment based learning all with the goal of helping individuals gain confidence and find their unique talents and gifts. 

When asked what he’s learned from the participants at On the Avenue, Woodard replied, that “every single person has a super power;” they just need to be given the opportunity to find it. He encouraged students to listen for when opportunity knocks as it’s God’s way of opening life’s most interesting doors. It was an inspiring lesson not to discount anyone and to open our eyes to our hidden gifts and talents and to strive to see them in others as well.