Nick was a troubled teen who could justify just about anything from staying out all night to talking back to his mom. That was before a stay at Venture Academy for troubled teens, where he realized he and his mom deserved better.
“I was sneaking out and stuff and my mom would call me and tell me to come home because it’s curfew and I wouldn’t come home for a few days. I’d just text her and say I’m not coming home.”
Nick, 15, admits he spent a lot of time and energy resisting rules and boundaries he can now see were there to protect him.
“My mom’s rules are reasonable. I think I was just being unreasonable,” he said during one of his final days at the treatment program. “At the time I just wanted to hang out with my friends and wanted nothing to do with my family.”
Venture Academy helped Nick put his life back on track emotionally, physically, and academically. Highlights of his stay including cave spelunking, jamming with new friends at a local rock school, and discovering that he learns best in a one-to-one environment rather than in a large classroom setting.
“While here I found out I like learning through correspondence better than in the classroom and I think it works because I pay attention more when I’m just reading it for myself.”
Nick is no longer expected to drop out or fail high school. Instead, he plans to finish grade 12, graduate, and go on to college where he hopes to study writing.
“I’ve got my priorities straightened out and my goals. I didn’t really care too much about school before I came, but I want to finish school now and I know what I want to do when I get out of school,” he said. (Venture Academy) helped me figure that out.”
His advice to parents worried their child may resent them for sending them to Venture Academy is to do it anyway.
“That won’t happen,” he said. “I think they’ll have a stronger relationship actually. They (the teen) may be a bit angry about being sent away but you forget about that in the first week. Today I can actually have a normal conversation with my mom and we get along. That would never have happened before.”
About Venture Academy
Venture Academy for troubled teens offers residential treatment programs that provide an alternative to boot camp for teens. Venture Academy specializes in helping teens struggling with problems that may include drug or alcohol abuse, low self-esteem, depression, ADHD, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and/or have school issues including past suspensions, truancy, and underachieving.
