Induction ceremony turns Commonwealth ChalleNGe candidates into cadets - April 3, 2015

Members of Class 42 of the Virginia Commonwealth ChalleNGe Youth Academy transition from candidates to cadets during an induction ceremony April 3, 2015, at Camp Pendleton, Va. Col. Paul F. Griffin, the Virginia National Guard Director of the Joint Staff, and retired Navy Capt. Mark Chicoine, the director of Commonwealth ChalleNGe, were on hand to congratulate the new cadets. The cadets completed the two-week long, physically taxing, acclimation phase of the course and are now in the academic phase of the program. 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.