Riley Santiago

Review of Utah youth village/alpine acad...

I attended Alpine Academy two times. I had some of...

I attended Alpine Academy two times. I had some of the best times and some of the absolute worst times of my life there. I made friends and family who are still a part of my life years later. And yet I still have the nightmares (that every Alpine girl knows) that I ll be sent back.
Being sent away from home to a place completely foreign to you with no power to change your circumstances can be a terrifying experience. But I found that embracing Alpine takes the power to surrender control, not that you really had any. Every student that enters Alpine Academy is there for a reason, a perfect child wouldn t need the help. It s hard to admit when there s a problem, especially when the issue might not even be the child s fault. Students can go to Alpine because there are problems in the household and unfortunately Alpine doesn t always do the best job of making that distinction because the parents are usually the ones funding the therapy.
That being said, Alpine has changed since I graduated. They no longer practice the point system. I don t know if this is good or bad. I found that the point system was both constructive and destructive, it just depended on how the person learns. Some girls measure their worth by the points they earn, while others see them as a way to grow and measure their progress.
But even recently I have thought about some of my favorite parts of Alpine Academy.
I loved the opportunities that the classes provided. I learned to sew and cook. I learned the importance of social justice and very important pieces of history that your average school doesn t teach. I loved the mountains and the snow. I loved the drive-in movie theater and the best beef jerky I ve ever had all right down the street.
My family teachers were the best people I could have been introduced to and I still talk with them today. They are my family and without Alpine I would have never cultivated that bond of unconditional love.
I was also in the adult-living program there, ASPIRE. Some of my fondest memories come from there. The dorm-style living, the meal planning, the budget making, the group decision making and dynamics (that we created as a team). Not everything was perfect, obviously, because no treatment facility ever will be. But I wholeheartedly believe that if you go into it with the most honest open-mind that you can you will gain so much more than you could imagine.

Alpine Academy isn t perfect and this style of treatment is not for everyone because all of our needs are different. But I know that in the end, because I made the decision to put in the work, I came out better.