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FEATURES
Appleton, Wisconsin December 2016 Vol. XXII
Issue III
Page 8
By Trinity Olson
Before leading Appleton
North’s choir, Mr. Aumann,
or Mr. A as he introduced
himself, taught at Green Bay
East High School. His transi-
tion to North was to be closer
to his wife. “My wife teaches
at Kimberly High School, and
she teaches English there; we
wanted to be closer to each
other.”
Mr. Aumann didn’t enter
college planning to become a
teacher, and need a gentle push
to break through the shell to
realize what he really wanted
to do. “There’s a couple dif-
ferent moments, but I’ll just
pinpoint one moment. I was
in college, and I wasn’t an Ed.
major, which means I wasn’t
going to become a teacher, I
was just a music major. Half-
way through college, it was
probably after the summer of
my second year of college, I
realized that I was fighting the
urge to be a teacher the whole
time. I was thinking like ‘This
isn’t for me. I don’t want to do
that.’ I had been told by a lot
of people that ‘You don’t want
to do that.’ For whatever rea-
sons be it money, or be it time,
or whatever. I was resisting
that. I had a really great men-
tor that summer whom I had
a conversation with, and he
helped me realize ‘No, why
are you fighting this. You’d
be good at it, and you would
love it.’ I haven’t looked back
since.”
Even before Appleton
North, and Green Bay East,
and even his time in college,
Mr. Aumann was surrounded
by music. “I’ve always been
a jack of all trades, ace of
none type of person, so I was
good at other subjects and
other things, but I grew up in
a family that on long car rides,
we would sing in the car. In
harmony, not just everyone
singing along, we’re making
a harmony. My dad was in a
polka band. My mom plays
accordion. My dad plays sax-
ophone and guitar. All my sib-
lings were all so very involved
with music. The one common
thread was, in music, was that
we all sang.”
Being surrounded by music
in his early years definitely in-
fluenced his career and skills
in music. “I play guitar, it’s my
main instrument, more lately
it’s the piano, and I also play
some drums.” Aumann mainly
self taught himself on the gui-
tar, with some help from his
father. The drums were also
self taught, while he has two
years of piano in elementary
school, and learned and grew
from there.
For the future of North’s
choir, Aumann plans to try
new things and has many
ideas. “We’ll see how this year
goes. It’s been going really re-
ally well, and I’m excited to
implement some of my ideas.”
As for now, Aumann is im-
pressed and inspired by the
group. “In our fall concert,
North Choir has been singing
this song, The Road Home,
which is a beautiful, beautiful
testament to how important a
feeling of home is, as well as
unity and community. They’ve
been singing it as a tradition
for many years. On stage, we
are standing on risers, there
are four rows of people. As
the song starts, they spontane-
ously started holding hands,
I did not ask them too. They
just did. It was really powerful
and really cool.”
Aumann, like many others,
hopes that North’s Choirs con-
tinue to succeed and grow.
By Trinity Olson
Starting out in the recreation-
al soccer program that every-
one seemed to be in, Morgan
Guest began her career in soc-
cer at a young age. “I’ve been
playing for about ten years,
since I was four.”
Now, Guest has been play-
ing in a more serious aspect. “I
play club soccer for FC Wis-
consin Eclipse, it’s part of the
Elite’s Club National League
which is one of the top soc-
cer leagues in the country for
women.” Guest had been on
the team since she was 12, and
has gained many friendships
out of it. “We’re really close,
I’ve been on the team with a
majority of the girls since I was
12. We’re good leaders, and
we all have different person-
alities. We each bring our own
aspect to the game, so it’s really
cool to get new players and to
change it up.”
Practice with this elite team
occurs three to four times a
week, adding to the already
busy schedule of Guest. She
travels two hours to Milwaukee
to practice with her team, and
she spends her drive “sleeping
and doing homework.”
Her home games are in Mil-
waukee, usually on the week-
ends, while the away games
depend on
the team.
“Sometimes
they are in
Mi c h i g a n ,
some t imes
they’re in
St.
Louis,
some t imes
they’re in Il-
linois. I went to Texas once in
the previous year, and I’m go-
ing to Florida this year.”
The weekend of Nov. 11,
Guest traveled to Phoenix,
Arizona. “It was for a college
showcase for the ECNL.” The
trip consisted of Guest fly-
ing out on Thursday, having a
few hours of relaxation time,
and then practicing. “I had an
afternoon training, just to get
the muscles going. Then I had
games Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday, and I flew back after
my game on Sunday.” Guest
also had time to sneak in some
fun, by going on a mountain
hike and enjoying the scenery.
“One win, one tie and one
loss. We played the top team
in the country, yet we lost five
to zero. That’s actually not that
bad because they usually leave
games double digits. It’s pretty
impressive for us.”
Human of Appleton North:
Morgan Guest
Choir director plans to bring his new ideas to life
By Nolan Arnold
From rugby to ultimate fris-
bee, along with popular options
like HOSA and DECA, Apple-
ton North is home to many
clubs, and students are always
encouraged to start new ones.
Recently created was the
Ukulele Club. “Ukulele Club is
fun, not competitive, and if you
don’t own a ukulele then you
can play a tennis racket,” said
advisor Mrs. Stidham-Gerbert.
Madison Berlowski, an origi-
nal member and founder of the
club, said the club started in
May, when she was sitting in
Stidham-Gerbert’s room. “One
day we were talking about in-
struments because if anyone
knows SG, she really enjoys
the harmonica and penny whis-
tle. I brought up that I played
the ukulele and that lead to the
idea to make a ukulele band. At
first it was just another one of
our weird ideas, but after a cou-
ple of days we finally thought,
why not make a ukulele club?”
A quick form was filled out
and within a week, Appleton
North had a ukulele club. The
goal of the club is more focused
on fun than anything else. “I re-
ally just want to be able to teach
people an easy, fun instrument
and get to know more people
that enjoy the same things as
me,” said Berlowski.
A possible “Jam Night” is
planned within the club where
players of any instrument can
come and play together. The
night is still waiting for ap-
proval.
This club will likely be ex-
tremely involved in the com-
munity, as another activity the
club is planning on doing this
December is going “caroling”
where they will be getting a
group together to go door to
door and play. They are also
trying to put together a Kids
Day, where all children would
be welcome to come and learn
the beginning steps of how
to play the ukulele. On top of
that, they want to go to nurs-
ing homes to play music for the
residents. Most of these ideas
are not yet set in stone, as the
club needs to get everything
approved, but members of the
club are excited to see what op-
portunities arise.
The club next meets on Dec.
13, in Stidham-Gerbert’s room,
2353.
“I am looking forward to see
what we have to come,” Ber-
lowski said.
Ukulele Club is open to all students
“I play guitar, it’s my
main instrument, more
lately it’s the piano,
and I also play some
drums.”
Mr. Aumann has ideas for how to implement his plans into this school year.
Photo by Olivia Molter
Mia Druckery, Madison Berlowski, and Kyle Scherzinger of the
Ukulele Club are willing to play anywhere.
Photo by Jordan Annis
Morgan Guest
of FC Wiscon-
sin Eclipse
See more Humans of
North stories on
northnoct.com
“I really just want to
be able to teach people
an easy, fun instru-
ment and get to know
more people that enjoy
the same things as me”
-Madison Berlowski