Once-Troubled Teens See Brighter Future Ahead

More than 80 once-troubled Arkansas teens are on their way to a brighter future today. Those teens graduated from the youth challenge program at Camp Robinson Saturday. It may not be the high school graduation ceremony that most 18-year olds go through...but it`s more valuable to those 89 cadets. "It`s the emotional and mental pay off that`s the greatest," said 18-year old Shayna Slaughter. Seventeen months ago, many of them were in danger of or had already dropped out of high school. Slaughter would have started her senior year, then she became homeless. "My clothes, I had maybe 4 outfits in a backpack. I lived off Ramen Noodles and Kool-Aid...I used drugs, alcohol, anything to make myself feel better," said Slaughter. For five months, Slaughter and her classmates were living the military life, much like a new recruit`s basic training. "They change the way they talk, the 1st day, they say `Yes, sir, No Sir,` they change the way they walk, cause they learn to march, change the way they eat, they 3 balanced meals a day," Dink Hall, Youth Challenge coordinator. They get new military uniforms and haircuts, then they get new attitudes. "It helped me to see that I can reach my goals, even that I can have goals. Because for the longest time I thought I didn`t have a future that there was nothing out there for me," said Slaughter. Twelve more months of community service and working with a mentor rounds out their training in Youth Challenge. "What it costs the taxpayers financially for a person to be problem to society versus being a productive citizen is just enormous," Hall said. The cadets who graduate the program all go onto other jobs, schools or join the military. One student is even nominated to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, and Slaughter plans to go to college and become a doctor. The next class starts in March.