By LIAM GLENNON

The Mirror reporter

Last semester, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) student John Hofmann student taught at Stevens Point Area Senior High (SPASH) with band director Bradley Schmidt. Loved by many in the music department, the students were sad to see him go this January.

Hofmann started his music education in fourth grade at Grant Elementary in Marshfield, WI when he started learning the violin. He later exchanged the violin for a trumpet and continued to play it throughout middle and high school. He earned the John Phillip Sousa Award, which recognizes the top instrumentalist in each high school. This sparked his ambition to be a music teacher.

Hofmann has always wanted to be a teacher; he spent only one semester at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield studying to become a history teacher before he made the switch to music. His professor, Dr. Richard Brunson, inspired Hofmann to make the change. Brunson also pushed Hofmann to become a better trumpet player with many practice sessions every week.

After one and a half years of music study at UW-Marshfield, Hofmann transferred to UWSP to pursue their extensive student teaching program. He completed six years of schooling before he could even start student teaching. When the time came to choose a school, he had three choices in mind. Choice one was Marshfield which was unavailable to him because that was Hofmann’s high school. His second pick was SPASH, because of its relatively large size and its proximity to the campus. His last pick was Rhinelander High, which Hofmann chose because he loves the city.

Hofmann got placed at SPASH and started teaching on Sept. 4, 2018, under Schmidt, SPASH’s band director. Hofmann taught in all of Schmidt’s classes, including his jazz band at P.J. Jacobs Junior High.