(Then) C/Maj Rebekah L. Strock, CAP was awarded the Cadet of the Year (COY) Award for NER. Prior to that she was also awarded Cadet of the Year Award for NY Wing. Maj Henry Grullon, who presented to her the NY Wing award, surprised her greatly because she had mistakenly heard that another cadet was the recipient. With these two circumstances, she was totally oblivious and did not realize that anything was amiss, despite her entire family attending the banquet that evening. Her friends and family were quite amused that she hadn't noticed, and upon receiving the award, she felt very honored, since she knew many of the top-quality COY candidates.

Cadet Strock graduated from Emma Willard School (EWS) in 2001 (equivalent to high school). During her time at EWS, she was the captain of her Crew Team, headed the EWS Science Club and was a Freshman Proctor. In her "free time," she enjoyed playing soccer, playing in the Orchestra, participating in EWS a cappella singing groups, Choir, Mock Trial, and a production of the Crucible among other things, as well as (of course) "attending meetings regularly..." at her home base: Vedder Composite Squadron.

She is currently attending the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, PA which she enjoys immensely. She continues to row and has joined Army ROTC. She is interested in the Military Intelligence branch and also is interested in pursuing the Olympics through the Army's World Class Athlete Program. Furthermore, she still intends to be the first Moon Base Commander (or something along those lines) and is working on a scheme to meld all of these goals together.

Cadet Strock would like to express her deepest gratitude and heartfelt thanks to all those who have helped her along the way so far. Special thanks to her mentor, Lt Col Anita Martin, and to Lt Col Chuck Cohen, you were shining lights on the path to success, and helped her from the start at every twist and turn. More recently, Cadet Strock has been guided and encouraged by the magical Major Mary-Lou Falco, who manages to find solutions with a toss of her head and a flick of wrist. Also, Cadet Strock has her fellow cadets to thank: she has learned so much from everyone at Vedder Composite Squadron, had a blast with all those New Yorkers at Drum (D2k...never lose the beat), and was able to experience so much with cadets from all over the country at National Activities (NFA all the way!). These people and experiences radically altered her life and each memory is a special one to her.