DURHAM - Sixteen-year-old Skylar Smith says he's a new person.
The old Skylar cursed his school bus driver, got suspended from school, and sassed his mother.
But now that he and 12 other young people have completed a 20-day, para-military academy sponsored by a Durham assistant police chief's nonprofit foundation, those days are over.
"That old me is gone now," Skylar said during an interview Thursday before graduation ceremonies for the new cadets at Northeast Baptist Church on N.C. 55. "The new me has arrived."
Skylar, who said he used to be "just a little bit arrogant," showed nothing but humility and courtesy during the interview. There were no mumbled replies, but instead, articulate responses punctuated by "yes sir" and "no sir."
The rising junior at Person High School in Roxboro said he had been heading down the wrong path before coming to the D.L. Forbes Youth Foundation academy, founded by Assistant Chief Winslow Forbes of the Durham Police Department in honor of his late father, D.L. Forbes.
"I had to come, because I was being disrespectful to my mother," he said. "But now I see that was wrong. That was shortening my life, and was shortening her life too with all the stress I was putting on her."
"When I go back home, I'm going to apologize to her and do whatever she says."
Another graduating cadet, 15-year-old Rayshaun McDonald, answered a reporter's questions Thursday with a broken voice - not because of a cold, but because as class leader he had been shouting orders to the other cadets to keep them in line.
But the sore throat was a small price to pay for what he got in return - a bright future.
Rayshaun, a rising 10th-grader at Southern High School, said he came to the academy because of chronic impatience and anger. But his parents saw possibilities in him he probably didn't see in himself.
"They knew I was a good leader, and they wanted me to increase my leadership skills," he said.
Rayshaun said that even as a little kid, he was giving orders to others - and they usually obeyed.
At the academy, which was held for 20 days and nights at Camp Butner in Granville County, he learned the importance of teamwork, caring for others and making decisions for the group.
"I learned patience, confidence and sportsmanship," he said.
His goal is to attend the University of Miami after high school and study marine biology, and believes his academy experience will help make his dreams come true.
One of the adult leaders of the cadets was 19-year-old Jack Wagstaff, acting battalion commander and a rising sophomore at The College of Charleston in South Carolina.
This is his third year volunteering at the academy, which serves youths from ages 10 to 17.
Wagstaff said one of the core values of the academy is to create a stronger family unit, and to encourage discipline and academic growth.
"It's designed to keep local youth from going astray," he said.
Classes deal with self-esteem, anger management, public speaking, bullying and drug abuse.
In the end, he said, cadets are better able to pay attention in school and excel academically.
Giving his time to the academy without pay is a sacrifice, but one that Wagstaff is happy to make.
"The most gratifying thing about the program is being able to save just one kid," he said. "That will spill over to their family, and affect a whole generation."
Copyright 2012 The Durham Herald Co.All Rights Reserved
