Chorus teacher Mr. Allen Botwick has been inspiring students at Green Hope for seven years. Beloved by music students and non-music students alike, Mr. Botwick was named the 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year. “When I was named Teacher of the Year, I felt proud,” Mr. Botwick shared. “Every day as a teacher is an opportunity to learn alongside my students. Without them, I’m just a guy who waves his arms and hopes to hear singing.”
From a young age, Mr. Botwick began exploring his passion for music and singing. When he was in second grade, an Elvis Presley impersonator came to his school. This experience left a lasting impression on Mr. Botwick. He recalled, “I was immediately in awe of his ability to spread joy throughout a large group of people. That was the day I knew that music would be a passion of mine forever.”
After this revelation, Mr. Botwick started taking his interest in music more seriously. “I began ‘performing’ for my friends and family, and they recommended that I audition for the Michigan State Children’s Choir. I sang in choir all through middle school and high school,” he said. He came to appreciate how both challenging and beautiful a musical community could be. Wanting to inspire future students the same way he had been, he pursued a degree in music education.
M. Botwick went on to discuss what he enjoyed most about his career: “The most rewarding part of being a chorus teacher is watching my students learn to believe in themselves, be vulnerable and authentic, work as a team, and know they can do challenging things. I love connecting with chorus alumni and hearing how our program helped them have success after high school, too.”
Mr. Botwick hopes his students can learn to use music as a means to grow as individuals in and outside of school. His classes bring together students with a wide range of personalities and perspectives. Students must embrace challenges and be willing to fail. Botwick shared, “I think it’s a beautiful thing that there are so many personalities in my classroom. It helps us all to become more empathetic, understanding, patient, knowledgeable, and flexible people.”
One of Mr. Botwick’s proudest achievements occurred last year (2025) at an annual adjudication called Music Performance Adjudication (MPA). Botwick remarked, “It was the first year since I started teaching that all of our ensembles scored Superior, the highest score. Seeing the pride on the faces of my students after that day is the most significant achievement for our program since I’ve been at Green Hope. What those singers may not realize is how their success was dependent on years of vulnerable music-making in room 608. We started at just over 50 singers in 2021, and now have 145. The singers from 2021-2023 made a significant impact on the chorus program and deserve a lot of the credit for its successes today.”
As for the future of chorus at Green Hope, Mr. Botwick plans to apply for the Voices of Hope ensemble to sing at the NC Music Educators Conference, which is a very big honor in North Carolina. He would also love to take the singers to Europe so they can experience choral music in the place where it originated.
Through passion, dedication, and a strong belief in his students, Mr. Botwick has encouraged talented singers and confident individuals to chase their dreams. For many years to come, his influence will continue to be felt in the halls and hearts of the Green Hope community.
