Wilkes University senior Justin Newcomer of Newfoundland, Pa., has received a 2020 Student Veteran Leadership Award from G.I. Jobs magazine. Newcomer, an electrical engineering major, is one of 48 student veterans nationally receiving the award. He will be featured in the publication’s August issue.
The award recognizes student veterans who have demonstrated a meaningful contribution to their institution of higher learning and to their fellow student veterans. Criteria for receiving the award includes academic achievement, volunteerism on and off-campus, participation in campus activities, mentoring other students and student veterans, and working to bridge the cultural gap between student veterans and non-veteran students and faculty.
A U.S. Army veteran, Newcomer served five wartime tours of duty in the Middle East and retired as sergeant first class. Newcomer continues to serve in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard as a platoon sergeant and was deployed in spring 2020 to Fort Indiantown Gap to assist with the state’s COVID-19 efforts.
He has served for two years as president of the Wilkes University Veterans Council. In that role, he organized the campus Veterans Day ceremony in 2018 and 2019 and spoke at the event. He also led the club in many volunteer activities which earned it recognition during Homecoming Weekend by the Wilkes Alumni Association. Newcomer’s involvement included directing the council’s work to build a playground at Heights-Murray Elementary School in Wilkes-Barre in fall 2019. The group also raised funds for Patriots Cove.
See the G.I. Jobs feature about Student Veteran Award winners in the magazine’s digital edition here.
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