Luke Zamperini speaking at Sunburst Youth Academy.

The Louis Zamperini Foundation, partnering with Sunburst Youth Academy, in Southern California, provides books, curriculum, and speaking engagements for this premier residential leadership academy for teens. This free program helps these kids develop the self-confidence, discipline, life skills, and education necessary to become successful adults and fulfill their potential.

The National Guard Youth Challenge Program, which Sunburst is a preventive rather than remedial at-risk youth program, targets voluntary participants, 16 to 18 years of age, who have dropped out of school or are not satisfactorily progressing, are unemployed, or underemployed, drug-free, and crime-free.

Reclaiming the lives of at-risk youth, producing program graduates with the values, life skills, education, and self-discipline to succeed as productive citizens.

The Purpose

The National Guard Youth Challenge Program (NGYCP) was established by the National Guard in 1993 to turn around the lives of young men and women between the ages of 16 and 18 who are experiencing difficulty in completing traditional high school. This is a cost-free program that is open to permanent legal residents in each of the participating states/territories.

(see https://ngchallenge.org ).

NGYCP currently operates 40 programs in 28 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. The National Guard Youth Challenge Program is a voluntary 17-month dropout recovery program that helps at-risk youths earn their high school diploma or GED. Some states offer credit recovery which allows youth the opportunity to return to high school upon successful completion of Youth Challenge. We do so in a very disciplined and structured program that uses the military model. Challenge works with program participants after graduation to help enroll in college, trade school, start a career or join the military. More than 145,000 students have graduated to date, changing the path for their lives.