Cadet Crista Hopkins

Crista Hopkins used drugs to cope and she still goes through withdrawal.

She attended numerous schools throughout Orange County, California, but, she said, "when I would go to school I would be really high and didn't learn anything."

Crista, 17, is now a cadet at Sunburst Youth Academy, one of 35 academic boot camps throughout the country run by the National Guard, the product of a 1993 Congressional mandate to tackle the country's high school dropout crisis. CBS News has been following Hopkins and other cadets throughout their time in the program.

"Deep down, I have so much hatred because of everything I've been through, and it's not going to all go away," she said. "I just want to learn how to cope with my hatred with some individuals."