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- 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.