FIRST LADY TOURS AT-RISK YOUTH ACADEMY

CAMP BLANDING - Just outside a group shower room in a cement block barrack,
Florida first lady Columba Bush listened Tuesday as teen-ager Amanda
Phillips told her how she is now making her mother proud by turning her
life around.

Phillips, 16, was a 10th-grade dropout who was flirting with alcohol and
heading nowhere. Now she is in a military-style education and career
program that has caught Bush's attention.

And after touring the Florida Youth Challenge Academy at Camp Blanding,
Bush said her daughter's recent troubles with drugs have heightened her
sense of urgency to help children such as Phillips and to promote drug
treatment programs.

"Many years ago I found out there was a crisis and a lot of families were
going through too much, so I decided to devote my life to this," Bush said
of drug abuse.

She added that since her daughter's trouble, "Now more than ever I am going
to talk to whoever wants to hear me about this very serious issue and how
we all should be more aware of the horrifying thing this could be."

Noelle Bush, 24, was arrested in Tallahassee last week on charges of trying
to get the anti-anxiety drug Xanax with a fraudulent prescription. The
Bushes have acknowledged that one of their three children had drug problems
in the past.

In talking with students - called cadets - in the Challenge Academy, Bush
said children in any family can face difficulties. She congratulated cadets
for entering the program - and offered some a pep talk.

"If you can get to 25, you can be very strong," she told Amy Morrison, 16,
of Jacksonville Beach. "You just have to get through the hard years."

The Challenge Academy opened last year in a complex of barracks and
classrooms. Money for the school comes from the U.S. Defense Department and
the state. Teachers are from the Clay County School District.

It provides a highly disciplined and motivational environment that is free
from outside distractions.

Deputy Director Rick Wolf said the program is based around core components
- - academic excellence, community service, job skills, leadership and
fellowship, life-coping skills, physical fitness and health education.

The students are school dropouts or have been expelled from school. They
are between ages 16 and 18. They cannot be felons and must be drug-free.
The goal is to get a GED or high school diploma and learn skills that will
allow students to find jobs, enter the military or attend college.

Wolf said the program lasts 17 months - six months in residence at Camp
Blanding and the rest in their home community under the guidance of a mentor.

Currently, 118 students are in the program. About 25 percent are female.

"It's designed to catch those kids who are not in school, who are
floundering and need some direction in life," Wolf said. "We help them get
back on track. The most important thing they do here is develop a life plan
that says what they want to do with their life. We make sure it is a
realistic plan."