“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt. Kim Hotze has long lived by that saying. But it took a couple decades or so for long-time Chesterfield resident to realize her greatest passions and to share them with the world.
Best known for being the Marquette High German teacher for 30 years, Hotze was also the school’s community service instructor for 10 of those years. That expertise helped her when she hosted Youth For Understanding (YFU) for a special two-week project, Sept. 29 through Oct. 13.
YFU is best known for facilitating year-long study abroad programs for American and international students, predominately for high school students. However, the recent two-week experience was focused on service learning for 15 students, ages 15-17, from several small villages in the state of Thuringia. The students were accompanied by two adults, who served as chaperones.
Hotze noted that Germany has an abundance of social programs whereas Americans depend on a lot of social organizations and volunteers.
“What’s unique about this trip is that students in Germany have a two-week fall break. That’s when they arrived,” Hotze said. “They all interviewed and came over on German scholarships.”
Hotze added that this was the first time a YFU service-learning sabbatical was conducted in St. Louis. She credited West County resident Steven Rutherford with getting it started and hiring her.
Hotze was a short-term hire to coordinate the event, find host families and set up a variety of community service projects. She was given a budget and worked with students on English lessons, fed them lunch every day and arranged transportation.
“Sometimes they hire someone to do the English class teaching and someone else for the other job details,” Hotze explained. “I told them I’d rather do both because I needed to know where they were in English. I also gave them a variety of activities to see and learn because the goal is for kids to go back to Germany and know that, even as teenagers, they can promote volunteerism at their school and do things in their community to help each other.”
Before the trip, Hotze joined Rutherford in recruiting local families from within his network. Three families hosted two students each for the two-week program. They were recruited early enough so that the German students could connect with their host families well before arrival.
Among the places Hotze lined up for service work was Five Acres Animal Shelter in St. Charles, where the students made items for the animals, such as snuffle mats and chew toys.
The students also conducted a cleanup effort at Johnson Shut-ins and Elephant Rocks state parks.
And for two days, the students worked with the Youth Volunteer Corps organization at Arlington United Methodist Church in Bridgeton. As part of a larger outreach project for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, they built beds for kids. In two days they built 24 beds.
“That was an amazing thing,” Hotze said.
While she is grateful for all of the service learning projects, Hotze insisted on adding special thanks for the Schnucks at Clarkson and Clayton roads. Not only did the market act as home base for most of the YFU projects, the store also let the students its second-floor mezzanine free of charge as community space.
All involved deemed the sabbatical a success that, if the funding can be secured, is likely to be repeated next fall. Until then, Hotze has travel plans of her own.
“I’ve already traveled a bunch, but want to do more,” she said. “Three of my four kids live way out of town. In September, I rented a car and went to Montana by myself for two weeks and just explored all around without any plans. There’s so much out there and I love experiencing everything in life. I had always been that way, but my studies in Denmark really brought that back out in me. I love travel, cultures, languages and exploring the world because it really wets my whistle!”
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