This article features Ellen Minette, principal of Heidelberg Middle School in Heidelberg, Germany. Minette attended 13 schools before she graduated from high school. Her father, an Air Force pilot who served in the Korean War and who was a part of the Berlin Airlift, was deployed much of the time as they moved from one posting to another. Growing up in a military family, knowing that her father might be in harm's way was very real to her as a youth. That experience is just one of the reasons why she is a perfect fit for the principalship of Heidelberg Middle School and why she is the first principal in the Department of Defense Education Activity to be named a MetLife/NASSP National Middle Level Principal of the Year. How she leads Heidelberg is described.