Noah Hellriegel of Bainbridge Island was among the 149 cadets who graduated from the Washington Youth Academy on Dec. 17.

Cadets from each corner of the state attend the free residential school geared at teaching teens discipline and helping them recover credits so they can go back to high school and earn a diploma or seek an alternative path to finish their high school education, such as a GED or by joining Running Start.

The Washington Youth Academy is a division of the National Guard Youth Challenge Program.

Hellriegel will go back to Bainbridge High School to finish his education.

“This is the start, not the end,” Major General Bret Daugherty, the state’s adjutant general and commander of the Washington National Guard, told the cadets during commencement.

“Not only have you made a commitment to improve your own lives, you have completed Community Emergency Response Team training while you were here at the Youth Academy. You came here focused on getting your own lives back on track, but leave here able to help and serve others,” Daugherty said. “That is a huge change in your life and we’re very proud of you for that.”

With a graduation rate of 90.1 percent, Youth Academy Director Larry Pierce said the Class of 2016-2 had the best percentage to graduate of any class to date.

Cadets also completed 8,181 hours of community service helping to clean a Sept. 11, 2001 memorial, tending to park trails, tutoring youth and donating blood to the Red Cross.

“They’ve learned a lot of new things that have increased and bolstered their confidence, discipline and teamwork,” Pierce said. “And, of course, our cadets invest a significant amount of time, energy, effort and a wide range of emotion in the daily life of the Academy. It’s not easy and sometimes just coping with the challenges and the stresses is taxing enough, but the cadets, you overcame these challenges.”