Sixty four cadet students who were once in danger of failing out of or being expelled from high school walked across the stage at Cottonwood Church to receive their high school diplomas or GED equivalency certificates on Friday.
Sixty four cadet students who were once in danger of failing out of or being expelled from high school walked across the stage at Cottonwood Church to receive their high school diplomas or GED equivalency certificates on Friday.
It was the 11th class to graduate from the Sunburst Youth Academy, which is located on the Joint Forces Training Base. The program takes in at-risk students for a five-and-a-half month live-in program. Modeled like a military school, the students attend classes, work on physical fitness, learn leadership qualities and improve self-esteem, pride and confidence. National Guard Youth and Community Programs Task Force Commander Brig. Gen. James Gabrielli spoke at the graduation and noted that the cadets now move forward with stronger hope for the future.
“The way they carry themselves, the way they present themselves, they’re set up for success and believe me they are going to be successful,” Gabrielli said.
There were also several notable achievements of the recent graduation. Sunburst Youth Academy is part of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program and is one of more than forty across the country. But Sunburst in Los Alamitos has proven exceptional in many ways, including having more than a 90 percent retention rate of its voluntary cadets. In fact, Sunburst had retained 93 percent of its students in the past two cyles.
“No other program in the country has achieved a 90 percent retention rate, ever,” Gabrielli said.
This year the program has two female platoons and 50 percent of the cadets are female, also the highest percentage in the nation. The physical fitness can be as rewarding as the educational improvement. Gabrielli noted two current cadets (a male and a female) who he said had lost 70-80 pounds in the 5 ½ months in the program. And 103 cadets, about half the current class, recently completed a 10-mile beach run.
And one class of cadets had 54 students enroll and at the ceremony, all 54 were still present. As a voluntary program, there are usually those who drop out. Gabrielli equated the 100 percent retention of a platoon with some notable sports records and questioned whether or not that would ever be duplicated again.
Like a regular high school, parents of former cadets have formed a booster club to help guide new cadets and their families through the journey through the academy. Booster Club President Sandy Shemet spoke to the cadets and wished them well.
“We know that you have put your heart and soul into doing your very best so you should be proud of all you have accomplished at Sunburst,” Shemet said. “All of you have touched our hearts in one way or another.”