"It’s a Good Day to be an Adult and an Eagle."
(Note: No other student scared me as much as Katie Maras. Why? Oh, she knew all the grammar rules, and if I slipped up, her hand would shoot up for a clarification. She made me a better teacher, and for the next two decades, I’d talk about her to my students when I introduced grammar and the “cheat sheet” I created for dealing with Katie.)
Overture
An opera tells a dramatic story set to music, so it is fitting that Katie (Maras) Haulter’s life followed the crescendos and key changes worthy of the epic storytelling of old. Like any mythic hero, Katie was blessed with potent skills yet her hero’s journey not only tested these skills but also her resolve as she traveled from her home in Minnesota Lake and out into the big world. While she slew some dragons on this adventure, she also had enough defeats to transform her from a fearless warrior to sage wizard.
Leitmotif
Operatic composers often give the main character a leitmotif, which is a recurring musical theme. For Katie, her theme would imbue toughness. She transferred to Maple River from NRHEG during her freshman year, which is a challenging time for any student to experience such change. Katie didn’t know her birth mother and lost her biological father at a young age. The move to Minnesota Lake came when her mother Denise remarried and the Maras-Esser family grew to seven children. Through it all, Katie persevered. Both a scholar and athlete, Katie found unexpected challenges early in her high school career. “Gosh, it's hard to get into a team. I played softball a couple of years, but you just didn't grow up with the same girls and the same coaches and everything.” Instead she turned her attention to academics and activities such as speech, mock trial, choir, and theater. “I really found my life in the arts there for sure, and added, “1999 Katie was ambitious, ready to launch out into the world, and loved the life of southern Minnesota but wanted to go explore more.”
Katie’s Cadenza
Having conquered high school, Katie headed off to Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. Even her majors were ambitious. In an opera, a cadenza is a moment for a soloist to “show off her talents,” and Katie quickly found her talent. “My senior year, I was part of the economics team at Maple River, and we went to an economics competition and I won an award. I thought I was really an awesome Economist, so I went to college and I was going to major in economics and communication. A liberal-arts-minded honors professor got a hold of me before I got into that major, and he was like ‘What do you really love?’ I was like ‘I love economics and communications.’” One thing led to another and Katie found herself watching the professor make a phone call that would change the direction of her life. “I auditioned for the musical and never heard back, so he got on the phone and called them, and they said they’re ready to see you. So I majored in vocal music performance.”
While Katie had been in music for most of her life, she was still a diamond in the rough.
“I didn't have the advantages of what even my own kids have now. I didn't have voice lessons. We were not in a place to ever afford that and I wouldn't have even known how to approach that. All of my high school and middle school music stuff came from music educators. Mr Ek was an incredibly supportive person, and I had a great time in the choir program there. With Corrine (Hammerschmidt) and the theater program–it was an incredibly supportive community.” Soon, Katie began to get noticed at Bellarmine and she started winning some awards for singing. Then the spotlight grew even brighter. “After my sophomore year of college at Bellarmine, I got a contract to start singing with the Kentucky Opera.”
Tacet
Unlike a musical, the music and songs rarely stop in an opera, but for Kate, her song came to an unexpected and sudden end. “God had other plans for me, and He was willing to do the hardest thing to help me get there. It was really the most pivotal time in my life and the hardest. I lost my dad when I was nine, so there was a lot of personal hardship, but this was the hardest.” Katie’s opera career ended as quickly as it began due to nodules on her vocal cords.
“I went to two specialists and they scoped my nose and my throat and the first one told me I needed to find another career and I was like ‘Oh it'll be fine.’ Katie sought a second opinion but did not get good news. “I had nodules on my vocal cords and nodules are like styes. When your vocal cords start to vibrate, there's calcifications that happened and you can no longer phonate at all.” Not only was her career as an opera singer over, but she couldn’t even finish her degree without a senior recital. “Absolute darkness,” Katie explained. “I tell people it's like if you watch Joe Theisman when he breaks his leg and he knew his career was over.”
With our hero temporarily defeated, Katie turned to her own version of a fellowship to get through those dark days. “I didn't know anything about the Baptist Church because I didn't know a lot of Baptists growing up in southern Minnesota.” Her Baptist friends helped their Catholic friend through this difficult time. “I was able to pray in a different way than I had had before, so that is probably the only reason I'm still here by the grace of God.” With no direction, money, or family in the area, Katie turned to another of her heroic superpowers.
Dress Rehearsal
Looking back, her next decision seemed obvious: English. “I have to say this as well: the quality of education that comes out of southern Minnesota that prepares you for higher education in the rest of the world is ridiculously outstanding. I went to college so well prepared for college compared to my peers,” Halter explained. Her days of “schooling” the novice English teacher at Maple River turned out to be a portent for an 18-year career teaching English. “I harken back to a lot of my English teachers because I had such solid English teachers all the way through.” Beginning with her middle school teacher John Glenn in Ellendale, Haulter listed off several influential mentors. Mr. Corey Quick provided the emotional support for the “new kid,” Mrs. Kathy Gjerde funneled her energy into positive outlets, and Mr. John Solting gave her the advanced English skills and support she needed. She also credits her National Honor Society adviser and humanities teacher Jason Fickett for teaching the importance of community service, especially in light of the St. Peter Tornado. Even during her musical college days, she worked as a YMCA site director mentoring young people.
The former opera singer transitioned and acquired a Masters in teaching and began her career with a decade of teaching middle school English at a Catholic School. It didn’t take long for her to seek a new challenge. “I was being called to go and, for lack of a better word, minister to the kids in the public schools. The public schools here are ‘city;’ the kids needed so much love even the wealthy kids needed so much love and they needed someone to challenge them and to say ‘That's not good enough’ and ‘No, you can do better than this.’”
Always looking for the next mountain to climb, she next set her sights on becoming a principal. “It was a hard lesson. That was the first time ever in my life that I worked really hard for something and did very well in the academic part of it–and it didn't matter what I did because it was not going to open for me. That was a hard lesson because I'm not from here and you have to have those kinds of connections.”
Yet Katie wasn’t done with music either. Although her dreams of being a professional opera singer ended, she found herself teaching a handful of vocal lessons at a dance studio in 2015. For Mrs. Haulter, everything changed in 2020. “I will tell you: COVID took me out! That widening gap between the groups of students was so wide. The kids who are going to succeed were going to succeed anyway because they had the background, they had the drive, or they had the Family Support to succeed. Everybody else: they were just trying to graduate. Covid just poisoned so much of education,” and she later added, “public school teachers are the scapegoats for everything people want to be mad about.”
Harmony
Having faced turmoil before, Katie found a way through. “Two years ago I got out of full-time teaching and now I'm the Director of Worship and Liturgy for St John Paul II Catholic Church in Sellersburg, Indiana. We have about 1,400 families in our church and it's a pretty pretty good-size Catholic Church for this area. And it is in the country!” Not only does Katie work in a church reminiscent of All Saints Catholic Church in New Richland, but she also is able to still teach vocal lessons. She now has a private studio, Bella Voce, which means “Beautiful Voice” in Italian. She has found balance teaching about 60 vocal lessons a week. “I've got kids who have gotten into big music programs and big musical theater programs and kids who are going to be professional. I live vicariously through their dreams.”
Married to her husband Chris, Katie has four daughters: Leigha, Claire, Meghan, and Amelia, whose talents range from athletics to academics. “ I launched into the world and stood on my own, and it was hard. It was really hard, and my kids never will have to know how hard that is.” Her advice for teens about to go slay those dragons found in the epic operatic tales? “Don't be afraid to go live somewhere else. Go meet other people and learn about other places and their history and their cultures–even just in the United States. If you have the opportunity to go to another part of the world it enriches how you understand the people even at home.” And some practical advice: “When you're in high school, if you're working a job: save your money! Do not ruin your credit. Keep your credit and pay your bills because that is a launching point to do great things.”
Life in 1999
Oscar Winner: American Beauty
Top-selling artist: Backstreet Boys
President: Bill Clinton
Viking Season: 10-6
Twins Season: 63-97
Price of gas: $1.17
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