The Boys II Men’s 13th annual Phenomenal Man Awards Thursday, Jan. 30 at Piper’s Banquets offers fitting salutes to six accomplished young men from Aurora. From left: Marco Camarillo, recipient of Boys II Men’s 180 Degree Award with a bachelor’s degree from Aurora University and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois; Dylan Oncken, alumnus of West Aurora High School and a former National president of Boys II Men and a graduate of Miami University and is an analyst for a consulting firm; Eric Cox, alumnus of Aurora Christian High School and award-winning news reporter with CBS 2 Chicago; (mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin, center); Octavio Donatlan, alumnus of West Aurora High School and an original member of Boys II Men since 2002, and first National co-president of Boys II Men, and manager at Pluto TV. Kofi Hughes, who played four years of Big 10 Conference football at Indiana University (IU) where he was two-time captain. He ranks eighth in yardage and 10th in receptions all-time at IU and spent time with the Houston Texans, Washington Redskins, and Chicago Bears. He helped build a sports performance company on Aurora’s far East Side, Fit Speed, with NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Hughes is the founder and CEO of Kofi Hughes Training and has mentored and developed more than 40 athletes who have earned Division I scholarships in the past five years; Michael Miller, alumnus of West Aurora High School and an award-winning elementary school teacher at Brooks Elementary School in Indian Prairie School District 204 in Aurora. See the video below. Jason Crane/The VoiceFifteen-year-old Ian Brock, co-founder of Dream Hustle Code and New Nerd, computer science, was the keynote speaker at the Boys II Men 13th annual Phenomenal Man Awards Thursday, Jan. 30 at Piper’s Banquets in Aurora. He is computer science activist, speaker, rookie coder, and soon to be author. His nonprofit, Dream Hustle Code, is on a mission to create innovators and to level the tech playing field for underrepresented and underestimated individuals in the tech industry, and especially students from under-resourced communities. By empowering schools and communities with tools to reinvent themselves in the 21st Century, Dream Hustle Code hopes to create and inspire future computer scientists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. See the video below. Jason Crane/The Voice
