SETTING THEM STRAIGHT

Military-style program aims at setting them straight
By Mike Saewitz

VIRGINIA BEACH

Participants with the Commonwealth Challenge, a free program that gives  at-risk teens discipline and skills to develop a career plan, prepare for graduation on Saturday at Ocean Lakes High School

Jai'von Garner had been to three different Hampton Roads schools in three years, and he wasn't into any of them.

"I just wanted to get out of school, but I wasn't ready to work," said Garner, 18, who spent ninth grade at Norview High in Norfolk, 10th grade at Booker T. Washington High in Norfolk, and 11th grade at Indian River High in Chesapeake.

So Garner signed up for something different: the Commonwealth Challenge, a free military-style program that gives at-risk teens needed discipline and skills to develop a career plan. He admitted that getting up at 5:30 a.m. was tough at first. Having someone scream in your face also was difficult.

But Garner became one of the program's top cadets, and he now plans to take classes at Tidewater Community College before going into the Navy. "It just worked for me," he said.
Sgt. Collins Hawthorne talks with Trae Hockman, center, before the ceremony.  Standing in front of Hockman is Tyquan Hicks.  Standing behind Hockman is Joshua Hollis.

Garner was one of 141 Virginia teens who graduated from the Commonwealth Challenge Saturday at a ceremony at Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach.

The program, sponsored by the National Guard, has been rigorous. The teens spent the past 22 weeks living at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach. They woke up at 5:30 a.m. each day, took classes from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and underwent intense physical training.

It was so grueling that one Portsmouth teen, Joseph Ensley, lost about 75 pounds. Looking slimmer and healthier, he received the program's most improved physical training award.

The Commonwealth Challenge, which began in Virginia in 1994, is designed to help at-risk teens figure out their lives. More than two dozen graduates are now going on to higher education - the most in the program's history, said retired Marine Corps Col. Thomas M. Early, director of the program.

Many of the cadets were doing badly in school and were mixed up in drugs and other problems. They now will have a mentor to help them achieve life plans developed during the program.

"If they didn't come here, they would probably end up in a detention center, jail, or dead," Early said. "This is their second chance at life. That's really not hyperbole."

Some of the cadets agree.

Sixteen-year-old Jewel Graham of Virginia Beach said she was hanging out with a bad crowd when she was a student at Ocean Lakes High. Graham said she had drifted away from her schoolwork.

On Saturday, as she waited to take the auditorium stage at her former school, Graham talked of going to TCC and later trying to become a nurse. She said she won't be hanging out with her old crowd.

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com

Comments on article:

My office has "sponsored" a Challenge Cadet for many years. We see that they have an opportunity to see adults leading productive lives in public service, and to work along side us for a couple of months. They also learn that prosecutors, their staff, and police officers are fair, honest, normal folks who take their duties very seriously. They get opportunity to go to court, too, which reinforces that there are consequences for breaking the law.

I especially enjoy hearing from them later to tell us about their jobs and families. Someone from my office attends their graduation, usually Mrs. Vicki Rogers. Thanks to the Virginia National Guard, part of the corps of guard dogs in our society that is tough and caring at the same time.I encourage other employers to contact Commonwealth Challenge to see how you can help make a difference in a young person's life.

Harvey Bryant
Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney

Submitted by desert_divine on Sun, 12/21/2008 at 12:29 pm.
That is what is needed to help give the guidance and direction some parents may have failed to provide. Now, let's get a similar program for those aforementioned parents (I am sooo not kidding either, they are half the problem and half the solution -their kids make up the other half of both). The belly-rubbers (as Steve Wilkos so affectionately calls them) need to realize that you have to disrupt the cycle somehow, and if it takes breaking these kids down military style and building them back up - then so be it! Blanket treatment for all kids is ineffective. I love that some of the cadets are committed to a better life for themselves and I wish them tons of success in those endeavors. Please don't backslide!

This program is fantastic. My 17 yr old son also graduated Saturday from the ChalleNGe program. It was a tough 5 1/2 months, but the ones who walked across that stage Saturday are stronger, prouder, more physically and mentally fit, have more respect and are more confidant than they were 5 1/2 months ago. They did this on their own, they proved to themselves that they could do it, that they can succeed and they now have the skills to cope with what ever challenges they may face in the furture. They did have help along the way from family, friends, loved ones and their mentors in the form of love, guidance and encouragement. They didn't get to watch TV, had no cd players, no mp3 players, no video games, no junk food. They had help from the staff and Cadre at the ChalleNGe in the form of guidance, encouragement, toughlove academics, life skills, and discipline. They learned more in the 51/2 months they were there than their entires lives to that point.
We definitly need to contact our governmental leaders and tell them to continue funding this program at the Sate and National level.
THANK YOU ChalleNGe for what you do.