By CHARLIE PATTON, Times-Union columnist

Not much can break Felicia Ridgway's composure.

This is a 17-year-old girl who has seen a lot.

By the time she was 11, she was already using and selling cocaine. At 13, she moved in with a 27-year-old boyfriend who didn't realize how young she was. But he was abusive, so she left.

She spent much of her teenage years in and out of rehab facilities and detention centers.

Along the way, she attended school in Jacksonville so infrequently and gave so little effort that by the age of 17 she had the equivalent of a fourth- grade education, said her mother, Linda Ridgway.

"No matter what I did, it wasn't the right thing," Ridgway said.

"I would be dead right now if it weren't for the program," Felicia said.

The program that Felicia credits with saving her life is the Florida National Guard Youth Challenge Academy at Camp Blanding.

What did finally break Felicia's composure was the question of what made her decide to change her ways, stop using drugs and enroll in the school.

It was, she said, the look in her mother's eyes when she was turned down the first time she applied to the program because she had failed the drug test.

"When your mom looks at you and you know she doesn't hate you but she hates what you've become ..."

Felicia's voice trailed away as she fought back tears.

And so, last July, Felicia applied a second time, passed her drug test and entered the program. Thus she began a remarkable transformation.

Not that it was instantly smooth sailing in the program that involves an intense 22-week stay at Camp Blanding. At first she resisted.

"I was a spoiled brat," she remembered. "I never knew how spoiled I was."

But at every turn she found people in her face, demanding change.

"They don't touch you," Felicia said. "They don't harm you. But it's really tough love. It's definitely shocking."

Then she began to realize that if she put the same energy and intelligence she had devoted to doing things the wrong way into doing them the right way, her life could be much easier.

By the time the 22 weeks ended, Felicia had fallen in love with the program and with her new life. She received her high school equivalency diploma in December and immediately enrolled in courses at Florida Community College at Jacksonville North Campus. Her ultimate goal, she said, is to complete a bachelor's degree and begin a career in public relations.

She is off to a fast start on that. She'll be spending the summer in Washington working in a paid internship for the public relations agency that represents the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, which oversees the 24 state and territorial programs.

She also has been designated an ambassador for the Florida program and a spokesman for the national program.

Linda Ridgway remembers the first time she saw her daughter after she had enrolled in the program.

"When I saw her," Ridgway said, smiling through tears, "I cried. She had changed so much."