BREMERTON—The Washington Youth Academy in Bremerton celebrated its second largest graduation class on June 20 with 140 students. The largest class was the previous one at 144.
Students volunteered 7,809 hours of community service to the Kitsap County community, valued at $67,000, according to Washington Youth Academy Director Larry Pierce. Service projects ranged from restoring a Sept. 11 Memorial in Kitsap County to landscaping and event support.
Each cadet was also trained to be part of a Community Emergency Response Team, the first time all of the cadets in a class received the disaster management training.
“We had 140 cadets of diverse backgrounds and situations come together to become one cohesive unit,” Pierce said. “They overcame obstacles and shared both dreams and setbacks, as well. They shared laughter and tears, but they changed together and they prevailed together.”
Fifty cadets also participated in the Academy’s first job shadow program, utilizing the help of South Kitsap Fire & Rescue, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, Kitsap Emergency Management, the CENCOM 911 call center, Kitsap Regional Library, South Kitsap Family Dentistry, Hazelwood Auto Group, West Sound Technical Skills Center, Cascade Eye & Skin Center and the South Kitsap School District.
Besides academics, the Academy also teaches life-coping skills. A survey of cadets when they entered the Academy in January showed that 28 percent of the cadets had an understanding of personal finance and managing a budget. By June, that number jumped to 84 percent.
Students from Kitsap County who completed the program include Marshall Lesnick, Annalisa Willette of Port Orchard, Alexia Beach, Lauren Esposito, Alexandria Courtney of Seabeck, and Seth Parsons and Jacob Ualika of Bremerton.
The students will now return to high school to earn their diploma, some enrolling in summer school, or seek an alternative path to finish their high school education, such as a GED or by joining Running Start.
The mission of the Washington Youth Academy is to provide a highly disciplined, safe and professional learning environment that empowers at-risk youth to improve their educational levels and employment potential and become responsible and productive citizens. The Washington Youth Academy is a division of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program.
Established under authority of both federal and state law, the Academy is a state-run residential and post-residential intervention program for youth who have dropped out of high school or are at risk of dropping out. The free program places cadets in a 22-week intensive residential phase. For the following year, the youth receives intense mentoring and placement follow-up. The school is in Bremerton, but any youth in the state can apply.
Students can earn up to eight credits. The average number of credits eared by cadets who completed the program this cycle was 7.9 – achieving a 98.5 percent credit retrieval rate. Comparatively, a full year at a high school is six credits. That means students earned more than a year’s worth of credits in just 22 weeks.
Graduating cadets had an average GPA of 3.6, which is a high B+. As a comparison, 52 of the graduating cadets had a grade point average less than a D before coming to the Academy.
Only 14 of the cadets who entered the program had enough credits to be classified as seniors. After commencement, 92 graduates of the program have the credits needed to be classified as seniors.
More than 1,500 students have gone through the program since its inception. For more information, go to www.mil.wa.gov/youth-academy.
