The Eastern Wyoming College auditorium filled to capacity on June 15 with family and friends there to see the Wyoming Cowboy ChalleNGe Academy graduate its largest class.

A total of 59 cadets completed the rigorous residential Phase One. Guided by the National Guard Bureau’s standards of the eight core components, 32 cadets earned their high school equivalency certificates, formerly known as a GED. They completed 3,277.5 hours of community service, which averaged 56.5 hours per cadet.

Besides being the largest, for the first time in school history, the class boasted two female cadets who played the role of company first sergeants. They included Denali Cline of Cody, who also earned a three-year scholarship.

She plans to return to Cody High School to earn her diploma before attending Casper College to study criminal justice. Cline also plans to enlist in the Wyoming National Guard.

As the academy’s featured cadet speaker, Cline spoke about choices and freedom.

“I encourage you to seek new opportunities. Nothing in life comes free. The only things of value are the ones you committed time, thought and effort to achieve,” she said. “People in this world will not give you opportunities, you have to take them yourself.”

“Sometimes when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but we’ve actually been planted,” she said. “WCCA has given us the tools to grow, and now it’s our time to sprout.”

Other local graduates included Joshua Hine and Trever McJunkin of Powell, Samuel Yeaman of Lovell and Tim Wentz of Cody.

The Adjutant General of Wyoming, Maj. Gen. Gregory Porter, addressed the cadets on behalf of the National Guard.

“Prior to coming to [the academy] you were labeled at-risk youth. At risk of what? At risk of having some of your choices limited,” Porter said. “It’s tough to make a go of it in America if you don’t have a high school education. Can you succeed? Absolutely. But you have fewer choices, less freedom, and less opportunity.”

He added that the Cowboy ChalleNGe was not a gift.

“You had to earn everything,” he told the cadets. “You had to have the courage to change. You have earned more than a diploma. What you have earned are more choices.”

WCCA Director William Moore was the last to speak.

“We’re in this together, and you should know that at any time you need to talk to someone, you can call on any one of us, whether it’s mentors or fellow cadets. We’re a team,” Moore said, moments after the cadets moved their tassels from right to left. All it took was one word to seal the accomplishment: “Dismissed.”

Class 39 rapidly dispersed from rows of reserved seating into the arms of parents in an emotional display of smiles and tears.

In Phase Two of the challenge program, the cadets will be mentored in the next stages of their career and/or education.