AG tours Commonwealth ChalleNGe Youth Academy - July 1, 2014

Brig. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the Adjutant General of Virginia, tours the Virginia Commonwealth ChalleNGe Youth Academy with retired Navy Capt. Mark Chicoine, the director of Commonwealth ChalleNGe, and Lt. Col. Elena Scarbrough, the commander of the Virginia National Guard’s Camp Pendleton Collective Training Center, July 1, 2014, at Camp Pendleton, Va. Offered free to teenagers 16 to 18 in Virginia, Commonwealth ChalleNGe is the Virginia component of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, which focuses on preparing teenagers that have dropped out of high school, or are on the verge of dropping out of high school, with skills, discipline and academics to become a productive citizen. Commonwealth ChalleNGe is a statewide alternative educational program with two components- a 20-week, quasi-military residential phase and a 12-month post-residential phase. As an alternative education program the cadets also have the opportunity to prepare for and take the General Educational Development test. Teenagers also prepare for future employment, military or higher education opportunities during the residential phase.