The CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY launches "A Last Chance at a Second Chance," a special multi-platform series following high school dropouts trying to turn their lives around. The series begins tonight, Oct. 6 on the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY (6:30-7:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.
CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller gets unprecedented access inside the Sunburst Youth Challenge Academy, a program run by the National Guard for at-risk teens. Throughout the series, Miller will follow eight high school dropouts enrolled at the academic-focused boot camp for more than five months, observing them from their first day until their graduation.
Additional reporting, extended interviews with students and their instructors, as well as behind-the-scenes footage will also be featured on CBSNews.com. Click here to visit the webpage dedicated to the "A Last Chance at a Second Chance" series.
Nearly 12 million Americans have never finished high school, and every year 1.3 million more join their ranks, according to the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network. The National Guard has tried to curtail this crisis over the past 20 years with 35 residential, quasi-military-style academic boot camps spread across the country called Youth Challenge Academies. The academies have graduated nearly 121,000 cadets; 93 percent of those graduates enter the work force or continue their education.
The Sunburst Youth Challenge Academy, located 30 miles south of Los Angeles, is the National Guard's top-performing academy, with a 92 percent graduation rate. Almost half of those students later go to college. Others join the military or the work force.
At the start of the program, cameras for the
CBS EVENING NEWS were there as parents, guardians, friends and neighbors dropped off Sunburst's newest class of 16- to 18-year-old cadets for their last chance at a second chance. During the program, which runs through December, Miller will track their progress and speak with the cadets about their achievements and failures.
Surviving Sunburst is not easy. The cadets live in barracks, wear uniforms and are told when to eat, sleep and go to school. They attend academic and life-skills classes, participate in physical training, and meet with counselors to assess academic and personal progress. There is no access to social media, television or contact with the outside world - it is just them, their teachers and their drill sergeants.
In tonight's report, Miller profiles five cadets who will be featured in the series: 17-year-olds Angel Kay Lemaster, Jeremy Caesar, Crista Hopkins and Adjekai Stewart and 16-year-old Francisco Lazo, who, along with the other 211 cadets, have abused drugs, joined gangs and are desperate for help.
"I was on the verge of being expelled from my school district because I got into seven fights my freshman year, three fights my sophomore year," Caesar said. "And I was on the thin line of getting arrested and expelled at the same time. I just fought because I liked it."
All of them have volunteered to enroll at Sunburst, and no one is forced to stay. However, if they stay, Miller reports, the chances are high they will leave with a high school diploma and a desire for greater ambitions.
"I want to make my dad proud. He hasn't been in my life," Stewart said. "His idea of being a father is sending a check, so it sounds backward, but I want to make him proud of the young lady he never took the time to learn."
"I didn't come here for my mom or dad. I don't need to prove anything to anyone but myself," Lemaster said. "So, if I can do this, because this is hardcore, if I can do this, then I can leave here and do what I need to get done, and that is an amazing feeling."
Steve Capus is the Executive Producer of the
CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY and Executive Editor of
CBS News.
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