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First Class Graduates from the
Hoosier Youth
ChalleNGe
Academy
Story and
photos by Spc. William E. Henry,
Indiana
Army National Guard
Many teens face a variety of
hardships in their young lives. Some face extreme pressures due to
drugs, gangs, violence, trouble in the home, or any other number of
distractions, causing a lack of focus on scholastic accomplishments.
Where can young people
turn when all hope is seemingly lost? Where can they look to receive
guidance in accomplishing what is needed most?
This is the point where
the Indiana National
Guard
Hoosier
Youth
ChalleNGe
Academy
raises its hand and answers those questions, giving Indiana
teens an alternative opportunity to realign their sights on
life-changing goals.
The academy has achieved
its first successful objective, graduating a class of 35 teen cadets
from 24 counties throughout the state. The ceremony was held at the
Community Church of Greenwood, Saturday, December 8.
All the participating
cadets volunteered for the 17 ½ month quasi-military course that
helped them achieve their high school diploma or equivalent.
Thirteen cadets even earned college credits through the academy’s
partnership with Ivy Tech State College.
Three cadets, Deven Brown,
Shawntay Dillard and Devon Hobbs, received scholarships to help
further their college education.
The course focuses on
eight core components in three phases. These components center on
academic excellence, life coping skills, job skills, community
service, physical fitness, health and hygiene, leadership/followership
and responsible citizenship.
These are values that
18-year-old cadet Randal’lee Neeley says helped him identify
discipline skills and his own self-potential.
“This is a very, very,
very good program, it’s helped me in so many ways,” said Neeley.
“When you come to this program you’ve got to want to change,” he
added. A change this young father said was crucial for him to get
his life on track for his 1-year-old son, Marshall Ray Neeley.
With emotion, he said,
“Ten years down the road I can take him down and show him the
academy and say, ‘This is where daddy got his life together for
you.’
Neeley, who received both
the Academic Excellence and the Ironman Physical Fitness awards,
said he was thankful they started the program and was appreciative
of all the encouragement and guidance he received throughout the
course.
Another cadet that could
concur with the outstanding success of the program was Chris Slider
of
Indianapolis,
who said he gained the willingness to push himself harder and beyond
what he ever had before.
“One of the hardest things
was being able to endure the extremes - the heat, the cold and the
marches. Doing the things no one wants to do but you know you have
to,” said Slider. “It all came down to teamwork.”
Hill said each cadet
completed an average of 58 hours of community service projects for a
total of 2,038 hours. The graduates worked on many types of projects
like planting trees and more than 15,000 flower bulbs, working with
children in nearby schools and cleaning up litter and debris from
park trails in Johnson
County.
At minimum wage, this
group of cadets has given back almost $12,000 in services to central
Indiana
areas.
The academy is currently
recruiting for the second class that begins January 20, 2008. So
far, about 195 potential students have expressed interest in the
academy’s second class. Ninety-six have applied, 72 have attended
required orientation and a tour of facilities with their parents and
the academy has accepted 51 to date.
Indiana
was the 25th state to adopt this type of program, which is
administered and managed by the National Guard Bureau.
The academy is free to
those accepted to the campus, which is based outside Camp
Atterbury
Joint
Maneuver
Training
Center
in nearby
Edinburgh,
Ind.
For more information on
how you or someone you know between the ages of 16 and18, who is not
in trouble with the law, is drug free, unemployed and a high school
dropout, can get involved in the Indiana National Guard’s HYCA
please visit:
http://www.ngycp.org/state/in.
Caption, thumbnail photo on home page:
Governor Mitch Daniels shakes the hand
of Cadet Randal’lee Neeley during a meeting prior to the first ever
Indiana National Guard Hoosier Youth ChalleNGe Academy graduation
ceremony at the Community Church of Greenwood, December 8.
Photo by Spc. William E.
Henry, Indiana
Army National Guard
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