‘Military Child of Year’ semifinalist
Elizabeth Evans, 15, is a home-schooled graphic design artist set to graduate with an associate’s degree – and her high school diploma – at nearly the same time.
Elizabeth Evans packs necessities for the “Backpacks for Homeless Veterans” project.
Elizabeth Evans has moved 25 times while her father served in both the Army and Navy for a combined 14 years.
The atypical, roving life forced the 15-year-old to embrace home schooling. She also embraces the “military brat” moniker, especially after she found out she was one of 90 semifinalists for the 2016 Military Child of the Year award. She was nominated by the nonprofit Operation Homefront that was impressed with her volunteer work and dedication to academics despite her hectic lifestyle.
“This is the eighth annual award given to an outstanding child of a service member. It’s not often thought of, but if a service member serves, the entire family serves and children are often overlooked,” said Operation Homefront Pittsburgh regional director Pete Stinson.
Evans now lives in McDonald, and said this will be her home for a while since her father retired from the military in 2013, paving the way for her to buckle down on her third year of a graphic design degree at Community College of Allegheny County.
“Yes, sir,” she said, when asked if she really skipped two grades and was on her way to graduate high school and college almost at the same time.
“I went to public school for a year in sixth grade and for about a week my freshman year. But home schooling has just been easier to handle and continue my education because my family moved so much,” Evans said.
Her mother oversees her high school coursework.
Evans’ brother, Caleb, 17, was 14 when he was nominated for the Navy branch award. Each service branch has a group of semifinalists.
A winner from each of the six branches will be announced in March ahead of a gala in Washington, D.C. The last time a winner was from Pennsylvania was in 2012 when Amelia McConnell received the Army Military Child of the Year award, according to Stinson.
Each winner this year will receive a $10,000 award and a laptop. The computer would be a great award for Evans, as she’s already on her way to a freelancing career.
“I’m in graphic design because I want to do freelance work for website and logo design,” Evans said, “but I also enjoy modding video games.”
Modding – short for modification – or what amateur game designers and artists do to add on to existing game content. For Evans, that means designing new “skins,” or looks, for player avatars in the military-themed, first-person-shooter, “Counter Strike: Global Offensive.”
“I like designing the skins because it’s easy to build them into assets that are already there, and coding new games is really hard,” Evans said, “but the challenge comes with making art content for sandbox games. They’re my favorite.”
Sandbox games are open-world or free-form games – like “Grand Theft Auto” or “Minecraft” – that allow the player to explore their environment and make decisions based on what’s presented to them instead of chasing a high score.
“I really like the game ‘Don’t Starve,’ just because of its themes and its art style,” Evans said of the survival-horror game that subverts usual tropes of fight-or-flight with farming and savaging for food while camped in haunted woods.
But it’s not all fun and games for Evans. She volunteers to help gather toiletries and necessities for homeless service veterans as part of Backpacks for Homeless Veterans, and she’s been petitioning the Pitsburgh Steelers to set up a nonprofit exchange for veterans.
“I couldn’t be in the military, though. I couldn’t live that lifestyle. I’m grateful for my dad and his service, but it’s shown me how difficult that kind of life is for someone. When he was having stressful times at work, I would be considerate of that; being a military kid has just made me very humble and grateful for everything I have,” Evans said.