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Jun 8, 2006

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PROGRAM GIVES DROPOUTS ANOTHER CHANCE
Nat'l Guard helps area teens earn GEDs
By Caren Oppenheim
Diamondback Online, MD

After personal reasons forced Patrice Richardson out of her classes at Frederick Douglass High School and into bed to rest for an extended time period, the last thing she wanted to do with her freedom was repeat the grades she missed.

So Richardson, 18, dropped out of high school and joined the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program.

This week, Richardson and about 600 other high-school dropouts who enrolled in the program are participating in the 10th anniversary of the ChalleNGe Invitational, which is being held at the university. The intervention program was designed to help high-school dropouts between the ages of 16 and 18 earn their GEDs and pursue higher education or employment opportunities.

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