National Guard Youth Challenge The West Virginia Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy in Kingwood, WV is part of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program.
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<br>Congratulations to Graduating Class 1-08! Class 2-08 begins July 13, 2008. Applications are now being accepted for Class 1-09 which begins January 11, 2009.
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Awards Ceremony

Different awards are given periodically thoughout the training cycle. These include ribbons, trophies and certificates that may be earned for exceptional performance in Academics, Physical Training, Leadership, Community Service, and other Academy training events.

2Awards_2_051Award ribbons are presented at the end of each Progress Reporting Period. The ribbons and ribbon bars are furnished to the Cadet by the Academy in recognition of successful effort.  If a Cadet is given the same recognition for more than one Progress Report, stars/oak leaf clusters are provided for the cadet to add to the ribbon bar.

Graduation Awards

2graduationA Commencement Program is held for each class of the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy. At this ceremony, the Academy recognizes individual Cadets for their outstanding performance while enrolled in our program.
Awards include:


Robert C. Byrd Distinguished Cadet Award
Recognizes the Top Over-All Cadet for the entire 22-week residential phase of the Program. This Cadet will have demonstrated leadership, academic improvement and effort in physical training on the Progress Reports.

Adjutant General's Award For Excellence
Recognizes the Cadet who achieves the highest score on the General Educational Development (GED) examination.

Leadership Award
Recognizes the Cadet who has demonstrated the strongest leadership skills during the ChalleNGe program.

Citizenship Award
Recognizes the Cadet who has developed in the areas of cooperation, teamwork, and community service.

Academic Challenge Award
Recognizes the Cadet who improved the greatest total number of grade levels on the TABE test and classroom performance.

Most Improved Cadet Award
Recognizes the Cadet who has demonstrated improvement in all eight core components of the ChalleNGe program.

"Esprit De Corps" Award
Recognizes the Cadet who has demonstrated the motivation and spirit of the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy.

"Iron Mike" Award For Physical Fitness
Recognizes the Cadet who has shown consistent strength in physical training.