MONTGOMERY, W.Va. — Fifty cadets make up the first class of Mountaineer Challenge Academy South. Graduation was held for the 35 boys and 15 girls who are in the inaugural class of the new facility which opened last year on the campus of the former WVU Tech in Montgomery.
“You can see the change in that 22 week period.,” said Director Paul Perdue. “The military bearing, the politeness, the courtesy. They’ve improved in their scholastics. Everything they have achieved they should be proud.”
Those outcomes are the goal for every student invited to join the Mountaineer Challenge Academy. The original academy, located at Camp Dawson in Kingwood, was the blueprint for the Montgomery campus to follow. Perdue said they were able to achieve great success thinks to the guidance they received from the Preston County operation.
The first class had significant challenges since the entire academy had to be done with Covid 19 protocols in place. Perdue said they were forced to cut numbers in half for the class, but they were still able to implement masking and social distancing into the learning and living process on campus during the 22 week period. Perdue said he believed in the coming classes, Covid may give the academy an opportunity to help children who have been struggling through the pandemic.
“Kids are at home doing at home learning may not have the drive to push themselves and parents are having a tough time being a full-time worker in the day and teaching at night,” Perdue said. “Some of these kids are falling behind and that’s where we can come in and help provide the structure these kids need to succeed.”
The futures of Thursday’s graduates are set.. According to Perdue 15 members of the class are headed to military services. Five are planning to attend college and five more will attend a vocational school. There are 14 who have jobs lined up and another dozen will go into a jobs program taught by the Mountaineer Challenge Academy in Kingwood.
Perdue said there are cadets in the class from 24 West Virginia counties. Originally the Montgomery campus was established to give an alternative to kids from the southern counties rather than travelling all the way to Kingwood. According to Perdue, the campus is a happy medium for most from southern West Virginia.
Applications are now being accepted for the next class at the operation in Montgomery which will begin in April.