National Guard project sets youth
on right track

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Before joining Arizona National Guard’s Project ChalleNGe, Marvin Nez was disrespectful to his parents and would steal money for alcohol and drugs. “The things that were going wrong for me before I came to this program called Project ChalleNGe, was that I always talked back to my parents, never gave them respect and I always took things for granted,” he said.

Nez was jumping around from school to school and not taking advantage of what his teachers were trying to offer him.

“So as I kept this up, I started getting suspended, going to jail and later I just stopped going to school and didn’t care anymore,” he said.

Now, Nez is an ambassador for the project and said he has accomplished “respect, motivation, integrity, teamwork and self discipline.”

“I can now give presentations to large crowds, finish what I’ve started and take on new challenges — mentally, physically and emotionally,” he said

Project ChalleNGe, which has been operating in Arizona since 1993, is now recruiting for its five-month residential program in Queen Creek, Ariz. With the program, which holds classes two times per year, the Arizona National Guard provides a challenging military-based education in residence for high school dropouts who have a desire to succeed. Those who choose can work toward taking the general educational development tests.

The next class, which will be the 31st for the Project, begins July 13 and graduates Dec. 13. Classes have an average of 100 students

To be eligible, students must volunteer to enroll, be a high school dropout or disenrollee, be drug-free upon registration, be unemployed, be an Arizona resident and be at least 16 and not yet 20 years old.

“The program also helps the cadets with improved self-confidence, self-esteem and communication and people skills,” Katrina DeVinny from Arizona Project ChalleNGe said.

DeVinny said that the program teaches life-coping and job training skills. The protocols and procedures for cadets follow military format.

“It’s extremely structured,” she said.

“The ones who complete the program and graduate leave here really changed,” she added.

Such a program is needed in Arizona because of the more than 19,000 high school drop-outs each year, DeVinny said.

“We’re losing a generation of kids that are unable to finish high school,” she said.

DeVinny said that about 95 percent of the time, the program participants are successful. Some have gone on to obtain college degrees or join the Navy SEALS.

For Nez, who heard about the program from his mother and one of his friends, he said he ended up at the program because he made up his mind to change his life.

“I knew it was right for me and I also knew that it would turn my life around,” he said.

Nez said he next wants to enlist in the military and serve for eight years before going to school to become a master mechanic.

Application forms are available on the web at www.azpc.org. There is no cost for but participants need health insurance such as AHCCCS.

Information: 1-800-296-8110