DoDEA Americas Student Named 2020 Marine Corps Military Child of the Year

A Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Americas region student is named as the 2020 U.S. Marine Corps Military Child of the Year as part of Operation Homefront’s 2020 Military Child of the Year Award program.

Niklas Cooper, a junior at Lejeune High School at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, is one of seven recipients of the 2020 Military Child of the Year Award, which recognizes the outstanding achievements of our military children. This year, Cooper has dedicated more than 300 hours to mentoring, tutoring, and community projects while remaining devoted to academic and athletic excellence. He tutors his peers in Spanish and mathematics and has earned recognition for achievement in advanced placement courses and for leadership in the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, where he is a cadet staff sergeant. Cooper is also the class president and is part of the community’s Rotary Club and the National Honor Society.

According to the Operation Homefront’s website, award recipients will travel to Washington, D.C., to be recognized at a gala in Arlington, VA on April 2, during which senior leaders of each branch of service, along with MCOY Innovation Award Sponsor, Booz Allen Hamilton, will present the awards. Each awardee will receive a $10,000 grant, a laptop computer, and a trip to Washington, DC.

The selection was based on their scholarship, volunteerism, leadership, extracurricular involvement, and other criteria while facing the challenges of military family life. Each awardee was selected by a panel of independent volunteer judges with deep roots in the military community. The seventh award is the Military Child of the Year Award for Innovation, presented by global technology and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. This award goes to a military child who has designed a bold and creative solution to address a local, regional, or global challenge.

Operation Homefront sponsors the Military Child of the Year program annually. The program recognizes seven outstanding young people ages 13 to 18. Six of them will represent a branch of the armed forces for their scholarship, volunteerism, leadership, extracurricular involvement, and other criteria while facing the challenges of military family life. The seventh award is the Military Child of the Year® Award for Innovation.