NAME — Meera Patel
AGE — 16
Tameria Aldrich might have passed as a typical American teen-ager if it weren’t for the camouflage uniform she wore daily.Her weekday schedule last spring was different from what most youth face too: The 17-year-old was up before dawn, helping clean her barracks before breakfast, then marching in formations, followed by school and a full day of other military-style events. But Tameria wasn’t in the Army. She was one of more than 20,000 Hoosier kids every year who fail to graduate with their class. But unlike many of her fellow dropouts, she decided to do more than spend her days working at the local fast food joint and watching TV. The former Madison Consolidated School Student is one of 49 teens who are part of The Hoosier Youth ChalleNGe Academy. The capital letters “NG” stand for National Guard, which operates the program. While similar National Guard academies have operated in other states for 15 years, Indiana’s first – and only so far – Academy has been in operation for just a year. The boys stay at Camp Atterbury; the girls stay in housing right across from these military training grounds in Edinburgh, Ind. A year behind in her courses, Tameria said she was ensnarled in “problems and drama” in high school so she dropped out. She now is on her way to acquiring her GED, and plans to attend college to become a nurse.Tameria credits the academy for her success: “Everybody here is there to help you get through.” Devin Spearman, 18, dropped out of Lawrence North High School because he didn’t have enough credits to graduate. Often he didn’t turn in his homework. When he tried to join the Army, the recruiter told him he needed to get his GED first and suggested the academy. Nationally, the Guard reports positive results: More than 70 percent of its cadets have earned a GED or high school diploma while in the program.Once they have graduated from the residential portion of the academy, the cadets continue to rely on their mentors, who meet with them weekly for a year. Walter Harvard, 18, hopes to go to college and pursue a career with the post office. “My mentor keeps me on track, like if I start slacking off, like going back to the regular life I had before I came here.” He was expelled from Kokomo High School for fighting and quickly realized that he needed a diploma. “The thought of my life going downhill and me being nothing in the future -- I just wanted to be something,” he said.
Contributor: Kaitlin Payne, 15Assistant Editor: Jeannette Greven, 18; Celia Ristow, 16; Keshia Smith, 18; Steven Thompson, 16