Seven Fayette County teens graduated from the National Guard-sponsored Youth Challenge Academy at Fort Stewart last Saturday at commencement ceremonies at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon.

Haney Adeclat and Jeramie Ruiz of Peachtree City, Samuel Dean, Julians Gil, George Hampton, Amanda Mindler of Fayetteville and Brandon Garcia of Tyrone successfully completed the 22-week, in-residence youth development program for at-risk youth located at Fort Stewart, Ga.

The National Guard’s Youth Challenge Program helps to reclaim the lives of “at risk” youth to produce graduates with the values, skills, education and self-discipline necessary to succeed as adults.

A preventative rather than remedial program, YCA targets youth who are unemployed, drug and law free high school dropouts ages 16-18 years of age.
The Georgia National Guard operates two YCA campuses, the original at Fort Stewart near Savannah and a second campus at Fort Gordon near Augusta.

Since its first graduating class, YCA can boast of almost 10,000 graduates.

Georgia State Representative Ben Harbin was the commencement speaker at the graduation.