Eckerd Academy at Brooksville Graduate Plans for Criminal Justice Career to Give Back

Ted Ricca, 21, feels his life has come full circle. When he was 12 years old, Ted was angry, belligerent, couldn’t get along at home, was constantly fighting, running away and quickly heading down the road to juvenile delinquency. Sheriff’s deputies were called regularly to the Ricca home, and Ted was eventually sent to Eckerd Academy at Brooksville (formerly known as E-How-Kee), an outdoor therapeutic program for troubled teens located in Brooksville , Fla.

Today, Ted is preparing for a career as a sheriff’s deputy in Pasco County , Fla. to help others.

“God bless Jack Eckerd for everything he did. Because of the programs he started for kids like me, I was able to turn my life around,” Ted said.

In recalling his experience at the program, Ted remembers the first weeks as being the toughest of his life.

“When I first got there, I had no self-confidence and I was really a pain. I wouldn’t cooperate or participate. My first six weeks were a backpacking trip and I made it so hard on myself. But my peers and counselors sat me down and made me really look inside myself. They helped me start to recognize my problems and my value.”

But it was the Brooksville program that was the turning point for Ted. This exercise instills trust, teaches teamwork and support for one another, encourages kids to face and overcome challenges and helps build self-confidence.

“The Ropes Course taught me to trust my peers, overcome my fear of heights and most importantly, to believe in myself,” he said. “After I completed the Ropes Course, I felt like I could accomplish anything! I still do.”

After Ted graduated from the program, he returned to school and graduated fourth in his high school class with a 3.92 GPA. He attended St. Petersburg College , majoring in criminal justice with a minor in education.

Ted plans to use the combination of law enforcement and education in his career aimed at keeping youth out of the juvenile justice system. “I wish more kids could experience it. You learn to make better decisions and always take the higher road,” according to Ted, who still wears his Eckerd backpacking T-shirt. “That shirt means a lot to me, it represents how really far I’ve come since that first backpacking trip nine years ago.”