The new Miss USA went from West Point to the pageant stage

Alma Cooper competed in her first pageant in a dress she found on Facebook, paying for the fees with her Auntie Anne's paycheck. Now she's Miss USA.

• Alma Cooper, a US Army military intelligence officer, is the new Miss USA.
• Cooper told BI she competed in her first pageant in a dress she found on Facebook Marketplace.
• She held onto her pageant dreams while attending West Point, where she graduated in the top 5%.

Before competing at her first pageant, all Alma Cooper had was just her mom and a dream.

She competed at Miss Michigan Teen USA 2016 in a dress from Facebook Marketplace, which her mother had bejeweled with hundreds of beads.

Eight years later, Cooper was named the new Miss USA.

"I can't even put into words this surreal feeling," Cooper told Business Insider after she won the crown in Los Angeles on Sunday night. "I have so much gratitude toward the shoulders that I stand upon and all the people who have supported me to get to this point."

A longtime pageant fan

Cooper, a second lieutenant and military intelligence officer in the US Army, had always dreamed of walking across the Miss USA stage.

"Pageants were like the Super Bowl in my household," she recalled with a laugh.

Cooper's mother had also competed in state pageants when she was young, saving up for the fees by teaching dance classes in her community. When Cooper set her sights on Miss Michigan Teen USA, she followed in her mother's footsteps.

"I got a job at Auntie Anne's, the pretzel shop, so I could pay my own pageant fees because I wanted to compete so badly," Cooper recalled. "I didn't have a coach or anything."

Cooper placed first runner-up the second year she competed at Miss Michigan Teen USA in 2017 and she still remembers the calm she felt onstage when she heard her name. It was a moment she reflected on as she and Miss Kentucky Connor Perry clutched hands on Sunday, waiting to learn which one of them would become Miss USA 2024.

"This really all started from watching at home and being inspired by other women who have walked that same stage," Cooper said. "It's a moment that I truly will never forget."

Discipline in the military and pageantry

Cooper had carried her pageant dreams through her time at West Point, the US Military Academy. She arrived with a vision board filled with photos of former Miss Michigan USA winners, hoping she'd become the first active-duty Army officer to win the title.

"Being at West Point, it built my character," she said. "It's the premiere leadership institution in the world. It's a place where every single person is committed to a culture of excellence, to being part of something bigger than themselves."

Cooper became passionate about research in food insecurity. Her undergraduate thesis, published in Military Medicine, explores the relationship between the body-mass index and how it has affected the US Army's recruitment crisis. Cooper told BI that her research was inspired by her mother, who had struggled with poverty and food insecurity after coming to the US as a migrant worker when she was 6 years old.

"My platform and what I'm passionate about, my education and study, is rooted in my family," she told BI.

The only female mathematical science major in her class, Cooper graduated in the top 5% and is now a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University, where she's pursuing a master's in data science.

"I can't explain how grateful I am to be a graduate and also have had my character develop at such a unique place," Cooper said. "I carry that with me throughout every aspiration and pursuit that I go through — whether that be at Stanford, whether that be an officer in the Army, whether that be at Miss USA."

Cooper believes the military and pageantry go hand in hand. After all, the current Miss America is a US Air Force pilot.

"I think discipline is a firm aspect between pageantry and the military," she said. "Being able to be intrinsically motivated, to have personal courage, is one of the Army values."

"And to get onstage in front of millions of people, a nationally televised audience, and wear a swimsuit — that, in and of itself, is one way to display personal courage and believe in oneself," she added.

Now, Cooper hopes to use her role as Miss USA to be a "force for good."

"This is not about me," she said. "This is about uplifting the voices of individuals whose stories may not be heard, whose stories may not be shown. I know this is bigger than myself."

"I think the biggest thing that can be taken away from my story is that if you are someone who wants to do it all, you truly can," she added. "There are no limits on yourself except the ones that you accept."