The young volunteer men and women must be drug-free, between ages 16 and 18, and Illinois residents. There are two classes a year at Lincoln's Challenge. The program, which has National Guard teachers and administrators, graduates roughly 800 students a year. While employees must be members of the Illinois Guard, this is not their drilling unit. Ill. The students dress in uniforms and march to and from classes.
Instructors have students do push-ups for immediate correction.
Some 75 percent of those who finish the program earn their high-school equivalency diploma. From the 'Sam, I am' readers to college level. On another part of the former base, Greyhound buses are everywhere. Each year, during its winter slow time, Greyhound conducts a drivers school in a rented building on the former base. The streets and runways become classrooms as Greyhound drivers maneuver their buses into parking spaces, back into confined areas and otherwise work to improve their driving skills.