What Gets You Fired Up?

What gets you

It all started when a young version of Mr. Stoll began his junior year of high school as an exchange student in Hamburg, Germany. Stoll spent a year in the country, and felt a deep connection with the language and culture.

Herr (German for “Mr.”) Stoll felt like access to learning German was what the community really needed, so he went on to be a German teacher. He feels the rewards of his choice everyday, being able to engage young students in learning the language.

Stoll is the only German teacher at Liberty and has been the only teacher at LHS to ever teach the language. In comparison, Spanish and French have multiple teachers that teach varying levels of difficulty.

Stoll begins every morning with walking in from the hallway of his classroom and greeting them with “Moin moin meine lieblingsklasse” which means “good morning my favorite class.”

Knowing that students enjoy and love coming to your class is the biggest part of being a teacher.

“I love class with Stoll; one of the best teachers I have ever had,” said junior Shane Wolz.

As you may expect, teaching exclusively various courses of chemistry at Liberty, Ms. Beierman is in love with science. She has always loved the subject and originally had wanted to put that love towards veterinary. Although once she arrived at high school where many of us, including her, had her first chemistry class she fell in love with the subject that mixed math, science and chemistry.

Flash forward, Beierman uses chemistry almost everyday of her life, in an attempt to understand the world around her. She makes decisions about the food that her family eats based on the chemicals used, or even assessing the biochemistry aspects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Before becoming a teacher, Beierman was a research chemist, and she misses it some days, but she’s glad she carried out the teacher lifestyle.

She is now investing her love of chemistry into the minds of students and even her children at home.

“I wouldn’t say my passion is in chemistry but rather building those relationships with students and helping them when they are struggling academically or emotionally,” Beierman said.

“I have a strong passion for speed development,” said Mr. Tutterrow a history teacher here at Liberty, but also a track and cross country coach for multiple years as a whole. For him, running is more than just a sport, it is a legacy and something you strive for greatness for.

“My dad was a phenomenal cross country runner for Holt in the 1970s so I’ve always thought of running as part of the ‘family business,’” said Tutterrow.

To a non-athlete, speed may be a simple concept that just looks like a runner running fast and pushing their limits. Yet there are so many aspects that go into speed; to name a few: stride length, stride frequency and believe or not flexibility.

Tutterrow says that he has always found the biological processes of speed fascinating, always coming up with new methods to improve.

He has committed himself to running distance, of course when his ankle isn’t bothering him, as it is bad right now.

“My longest run ever, I began before the sun rose and watched the sunrise while running. I feel it (running) also connects you to what your body has always been meant to do.”

Freshman Noah Block gets “fired up” about art, sketching and being creative. Block specializes in zentangle and abstract act, but hopes to “do more people, animations, cityscapes, landscapes.”

He is currently enrolled in Art Fundamentals this semester, and plans to take Drawing 1 afterwards. “I want to get better at drawing. I’ve been doing it since I was young. Over time I’ve grown, and I still am.”

Block has his own process when it comes to creating art. He works in a linear fashion, confident that the best work cannot be recreated.

“I’ve never believed in doing a rough draft and then a final draft. It’s easier to go off of just one canvas, and I think it makes the final product better.”

Freshman Olivia Crone is a member of the select treble choir, plays piano, and is currently learning the guitar.

Crone got into music at a young age due to her family, “My dad was in a local band in college, and most of my dad’s side is pretty involved as well.”

She’s been in choir since she was 5, and is currently thinking about joining a church choir. Crone says that she’s been enjoying her first year of select treble choir.

“We do a fun activity for about 10 minutes every day, like ‘Move It Monday.’” What Crone loves about music is “how it makes people feel and can bring them together.”

She says that it’s a nice stress reliever and that sometimes she’ll just sit in front of a piano and play a few notes.

Senior Athena Widlacki is the president of Educators Rising. She’s been a part of the club since she was a freshman, and is the president this year.

“My job is to run meetings, run events, and to communicate with members.” Widlacki was drawn to this club by their sponsor, Mrs. Genenbacher. “I had her as my Child Development 1 teacher and I heard her talking about her club,” Widlacki says. “I had wanted to be a teacher at the time, so I joined.”

Educators Rising focuses on working with our community, especially children. Sometimes they participate in state competitions regarding children’s literature and lesson plans.

Senior Patrick O’Day has been playing soccer since the young age of 4 years old. His passion for the sport has brought him all the way through high school and cemented his skill as one of the most talented soccer players at Liberty.

“I’ve played it my whole life so it means a lot,” said O’Day. “I hope everybody else can find the same passion and motivation in something they love doing.” Twice this season, the goalkeeper has led his team to victory with three consecutive shutouts. He also helped the Eagles win the St. Dominic Super Cup earlier this season.

O’Day’s talent and hard work have garnered him community recognition as well. On Oct. 6, O’Day was named STLtoday’s athlete of the week. The senior is currently one win away from having the all-time highest career wins at Liberty.

Junior AJ Fruehwirth is currently a Drum Major of the Liberty Eagle Regiment. Having been in band since sixth grade and marching band since ninth grade, he has worked his way up from being a player on the field to a leader on a podium.

“Being a drum major is a different experience than just being on the field,” he said. Fruehwirth’s job during each performance is to conduct in time for the marchers, pit, and color guard to stay together. If the drum major is off, the entire performance is thrown off.

This experience has inspired the junior to pursue marching band in a professional capacity. “I’m looking into joining the (Colts) Cadets this summer or after high school.”

Sophomore Emma Thomas is highly involved in school activities. She’s the social committee chair in Key Club, a youth representative in Friends for Foster, a cabinet member of FCCLA, and is a member of HOSA, Speech and Debate, Mock Trial, band, and tennis.

“I try to be involved while keeping up with school work,” Thomas said. She enjoys all subjects but favors math and science. “I don’t hate English and history; my strengths just lie more in math and science.”

Thomas strives to keep learning because she wants to continue to be informed about the world and wants to better herself each year.

“You can’t do it for your parents; you have to do it for yourself.”