Sunburst graduates Class 27

Story & photos by
Staff Sgt. Crystal Housman
California National Guard Public Affairs

June 25, 2021

IRVINE, Calif. – Late last year, Dane Suplee realized he was a lazy and stubborn teenager with no forward traction.

"Four months ago, I was an entirely different person," Suplee said, June 11, during the Sunburst Youth Challenge Academy Class 27 graduation ceremony in an outdoor amphitheater at Mariners Church in Irvine.

"I was setting a lower standard for myself than I was actually capable of," he said.

Suplee was not alone.

Around the time Suplee discovered his discontent, 95 other Southern California teens had a similar realization and made a choice to change.

"It all around felt as if I had no purpose," said Mariyah Johnson Torres. "I needed to change fast."

Behind in high school credits and unhappy with where their lives were going, the teens arrived to the academy campus on the grounds of Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos, in early January.

They committed to spending 22 weeks living and going to school on the base, sleeping six feet apart in open bay dorms, and giving up their access to fashion, cell phones, electronics, and other worldly distractions.

The teens, all ages 16-18, donned khaki Sunburst cadet uniforms and black boots, learned to march and moved from their dorms to school and back again as directed by Soldiers and Airmen from the California Military Department.

"It has been 22 very long weeks, but we made it," Johnson Torres told the crowd of cadets and along with a small number of family members from the graduation speaker's podium.

For five and half months she and the teens had one focus: self-improvement.

"The beginning of Sunburst had me feeling like I was never going to get out, but then I began to get closer to my fellow cadets, cadre and most importantly: my goals," she said while wearing a purple cap and gown over her uniform.

Johnson Torres and 22 fellow cadets earned their high school diplomas from the Orange County Department of Education during their time at the academy, and another seven passed the HiSET high school equivalency exam.

"Because of Sunburst, I am graduating on time with my 2021 class, and graduating with almost 40 extra credits," Johnson Torres said.

During her time at the academy, she made up lost ground and laid the foundation for the future, she said.

"I came here in search of nothing more than credits and discipline, but I gained more than that," Johnson Torres said.

She is enrolled in community college with plans to transfer to her dream school, Spelman College, in a couple years.

"I think everyone graduating today has made a change in their life from their experience here," Suplee said.

The self-described lazy and stubborn teen found himself serving as class first sergeant and responsible for all 95 of his classmates, even those older than him and in a higher grade.

"People along the way told me I could do so much more," he said. "I had to realize that I was the one who had to do it."

That epiphany came at Sunburst.

"I figured out that change doesn't happen when you feel like it," Suplee said. "Change happens when you apply yourself rain or shine, good days or bad days."

"This program has put me in places where it was hard, places where it was difficult, stressful, and overwhelmingly tough at time," he said.

The Sunburst experience will serve him well, he said, as he looks to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

"This program was just the beginning of my journey to be the best I can be."

Sunburst is one of three National Guard Youth ChalleNGe academies facilitated in partnership between the California Military Department's Task Force Torch and local school districts and one of 40 such academies nationwide.

A fourth program, California Jobs ChalleNGe, serves as an optional follow-on program for academy graduates to provide a kick-start in a choice of career pathways.