For many military children, the constant new schools, friends, and communities can make it difficult to feel settled. But for junior Lucia Chang, those challenges became motivation to help others and create a stronger community for military-connected teens. In doing so, Lucia was recognized as the 2025 Military Youth of the Year.

The Military Youth of the Year Award is awarded to teens who demonstrate leadership, service, and advocacy within their communities. Through this program, teens represent their youth centers and speak up about issues affecting teens.

“The youth of the year award is where you get nominated as a representative for your youth center or your community,” Lucia said. “You can advocate for yourself and other teens in your community and to talk about improving your community and also giving other teens a voice. ”

For Lucia, the award was more than just a personal achievement. She saw it as an opportunity to represent the experience of military youth everywhere.

“It felt really good, but I was also really grateful for the opportunity I was given,” said Lucia. “By being nominated it means that I get to represent all the teens in my youth center and my community.“

Growing up in a military family is not easy, and for Lucia, there was one issue that stood out.

“Growing up in a military family, I faced relocation, different schools, different friends, and also just family members gone for a lot of your life,” Lucia said. “It was more of just rebuilding your life through more connections and new friends and having to restart every time.“

But Lucia refused to let this hold her back. Instead, she became involved in multiple clubs and activities, including tennis, which helped her build confidence and communication skills.

“Being part of groups and clubs, that made me more open minded and positive, and it helped me with my communication and helped build my confidence skills,” Lucia said. “That helped me to advocate for others, especially for myself and my community.”

Her advisor, T Owens, believes that Lucia’s ability to adapt and connect with others is what makes her stand out.

“Lucia is one of those kids that traveled across the country, not only across the country, but across the world in different schools,” Owens said. “She had to adapt to the new places that she was in, but that didn’t stop her. She is very resilient, so she bounced back and just kept pushing forward.”

Lucia is currently the president of Owens’ keystone club at Replica Youth Center, where she helps organize community service projects and activities for teens. According to Owens, Lucia constantly goes out of her way to support others.

“She’s very encouraging,” Owens said. “She’s an uplifting youth. Not only does she uplift the youth, but she uplifts our staff as well, including myself, and she’s not afraid to advocate for things that are right and speak up when things are wrong.”

One of Lucia’s biggest inspirations is Shohei Ohtani. She admires his hard work and growth he achieved while adapting to life in a new country.

“He’s a perfect reminder of how you can chose to be a leader and how you can contribute to your environment, even if you’re still unsure about yourself or about the environment that you’re in.” Lucia said.

In the future, Lucia hopes to continue creating opportunities for military-connected teens.

“I want to bring more fun activities in my community, especially on base as a military child for other military children to have a safe space and a fun place to be in.” Lucia said.

She also hopes her story will encourage other students to recognize their own potential.

“Everyone can be a leader in their own way. Not everyone has a loud voice, not everyone has to be charismatic, but as teens, we should all have confidence in ourselves and learn from ourselves and other people, and as we do that, we can have the motivation, or even have a purpose to help not only ourselves, but also others.” Lucia said.