Amelie Gotz, a foreign exchange student from Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg Germany, has become an important part of Papillion La Vista South’s performing arts programs, earning praise for her talents in both show choir and drama. Under the guidance of Brian Johnson, co-director of choral activities, and Mary Dickson, head of the theatre department, Amelie has quickly adapted to Papio South, appearing in the Radiance show choir and the All Shook Up musical held November 14-17th.
Amelie joined the school’s show choir program shortly after arriving at Papio South, bringing a positive attitude with her. Brian Johnson, who helps lead the show choir, said “You know that in any successful team, there’s usually someone who’s like that positive spirit when the rehearsal or the practice is really tough. There’s someone that drags the group along. She’s one of those kinds of people, you know, where she’s just so positive and she’s just hardworking and unlike a lot of our kids that are used to being in this program, she doesn’t take it for granted because she’s never done it before.”
Although Amelie had never done show choir or drama at her school in Germany, she did have a background in singing and dancing before coming to America. She participated in choir and show dance, as well as ballet classes. Amelie described show dancing as telling a story, but through dance.
It wasn’t always supposed to end up this way, said Johnson. “I know the people that are her host family because they’ve had kids that have gone through our program. And so when they said that she was coming in and she wants to get involved, at the time, I was like, well, show choir auditions are already done, we don’t have room and there’s no way I could get her involved in that. And so I was thinking, okay, well, maybe the musical might be the best way to get her involved. And then, we had a student that for various reasons, could no longer do it, who was similarly sized to her and so I was like, well, heck, there it is, and so we were able to put her in that spot in show choir, so she was able to join and she has been an absolute delight. She’s like one of the kindest, happiest people you will meet.”
In addition to her work in the show choir, Amelie has got to work in the drama department. She performed in the recent fall musical, directed by Mary Dickson, “Amelie is amazing to have as a student. She has great leadership skills and came into the foreign exchange program with the right mindset: to get involved. She has house crewed, been in the musical, and is doing show choir,” remarked Mrs. Dickson.
Prior to coming to the United States for her exchange year, Amelie described her inspiration for becoming a part of the exchange program as coming from her mom’s participation in a program called Up with People. “It’s more like a group of people from all over the world who come together and make up a show. They travel all around the world, and so I was like, oh my gosh, that is so exciting. I want to do that too.” Amelie explained how the program had changed, meaning Up with People wasn’t active like it was for her mom. Although she didn’t see Up with People as an option for an exchange year, she was still very interested in going to school in the United States. “And I mean everybody’s seen high school in the U.S. and films and like that’s what is big in Germany, high schools. So I was like, okay, maybe I just wanna do that and so it was in my mind for like, five years before I applied for that. When I was old enough to do that, I applied for the program.”
Overall, Amelie has talked about the impact this experience has had on her life. With that said, she has made a lasting impact on Papio South, specifically the Drama and Theatre departments. Mr. Johnson proclaimed, “I love how her positive disposition rubs off on other students. And that is, I think, what’s inspiring as a teacher of any student when you see someone come in and positively impact an ensemble, a team, a classroom, you know, there are some classes where you have total jerks and you just hate going to that class. And then there are other classes that you can’t wait to go to because you know it’s gonna be a fun day because of the people that are in there. Amelie’s one of those people that makes that ensemble better. She just is. And so it’s inspiring to see how she rubs off on others and how others feed off of her positive energy.”
Although it may seem daunting, the foreign exchange program is a great way to get out of your comfort zone, says Amelie. “I mean, some people come back from their exchange year and are like, hey, I’m so open, I’m more outgoing, because it is really tough to come into a new country to live with people you actually do not know, like with a new host or a new family and going to a different school. You may be not speaking a language as well as you should or as good as you wish you could speak it. So, I would say that your English will develop a lot, and I can say by myself for my experience, I speak English more fluently than in Germany back then. So I would say, like, it’s something I would 100% recommend to all those students thinking about doing something like that.”
