TEEN HELPS YOUTH REMAIN DRUG-FREE

Kenai Central High School Junior Takes On Role As D.A.R.E. Youth Adviser

How does a high school senior juggle being student body president, a
member of the basketball and swim teams and youth adviser for
D.A.R.E. Alaska all the while maintaining a good grade in AP
Language Arts? The answer, very carefully.

Adrianna Garcia, a student at Kenai Central High School, does all
these things and still finds time to read her favorite Shakespearian
play. Some students may bite off more than they can chew by being
both the student body president and the D.A.R.E. youth adviser for
the entire state, but Garcia says one job influences the other and
she's able to get more done.

"I run student government meetings and I'm available to invite
students to the Alaska summit," she said, adding that she can use
student government funds to do D.A.R.E.-related things.

Garcia, like many kids, went through the D.A.R.E. program in the
fifth grade. As a student at a private Catholic school, she said the
education was eye opening and necessary for kids who are going out
into the world. Even though she moved from the suburbs of Detroit
to the Kenai Peninsula in 2001, by role playing with the D.A.R.E.
officer, she gained the self confidence to withstand peer pressure.

"The personal connection with the police officer is great," she
said, adding that the positive effects of the program aren't all
drug- and alcohol-related. "It's how the D.A.R.E. officer speaks to
you and how you can learn about yourself in the process."

After she graduated from the D.A.R.E. program, Garcia already knew
that she wanted to incorporate its teachings into her daily life.
With her father, Soldotna Police Officer Tony Garcia, being D.A.R.E.
officer for the Soldotna elementary and middle schools as well as
resource officer for Soldotna High School, this wasn't difficult.

But when her friend Stevie a girl she'd went to school with, grew up
with and played softball with overdosed on a handful of prescription
pills, Garcia realized she wanted to do something.

"It had been in the last year when she started to experiment," she
said. "I didn't realized it could escalate so fast."

In order for her to become a youth adviser, a position D.A.R.E.
began in 2000, she had to fill out a form, telling the board of
directors why she wanted to be the youth adviser as well as go
through an interview.

Garcia, who had been involved with student government since her
freshman year, said her experience with student politics helped her
gain the leadership and speaking skills necessary for the youth adviser job.

As youth adviser, Garcia speaks at D.A.R.E. graduations at Anchorage
schools and schools here on the Kenai Peninsula, and D.A.R.E.
officer graduations as well. She provides a youth perspective at
D.A.R.E. board meetings as well as to Governor Sarah Palin and other
politicians concerned with drug use in Alaska. As both junior class
president and youth adviser, she also initiated the "every 15
minutes" program at KCHS.

"I nominated her for the position," Officer Garcia said.
"(Adrianna's) experience as the youth adviser gave her the
opportunity to meet the lieutenant governor and the governor and
provided her an avenue to share her ideas with people of influence,
people who can appropriate funds for various programs."

Exchanging ideas with Governor Palin and Lieutenant Governor Sean
Parnell may seem daunting to a lot of teenagers, but Garcia says she
gets more nervous talking to kids her own age. Student government
has made her a stronger leader, but she says because she's going in
a much different path than most of her fellow students, it's hard to
know if she's getting through to them.

Although she doesn't know what college she wants to go to yet,
Garcia dreams of being an obstetrician-gynecologist or a neo-natal
surgeon because she is passionate about helping children.

As youth adviser, she sees the biggest challenge facing most
students is peer pressure. But she encourages them to remember what
they learned in D.A.R.E. and asks them to be as passionate as she is.

"It's not easy to have strength," she said. "I can help them realize
they have the power to change the world, one step at a time."

Kenai Central High School senior Adrianna Garcia is the statewide
youth adviser for D.A.R.E. Alaska, Inc.