Alicia Holzem 9 is a freshman who enjoys cheer, jogging, going outside, and hanging out with her family.

“I was on the cheer squad this year, I’m also going to try out next year, I also go jogging a lot with my sister and my family. I also like hiking and I spend time with my family a lot,” Holzem said.

Holzem was born in Fort Carson into a military family while her dad was away. She moved to Germany for 12 and a half years to live with her family because of family issues. 

“I was born in Fort Carson and then moved to Germany. We moved to Germany because my dad was in the military and he missed my birth so he wanted to get out. Then we didn’t have healthcare so we moved to Germany with my mom’s family,” Holzem said.

Holzem looks up to her parents because they had a lot to deal with between not being able to go to college in Germany and growing up in a rough neighborhood. Holzem also admires that her parents help her stay in school so she can have a good education.

“I look up to my parents because they have accomplished so much. In germany you have three different kinds of schools, and my mom was on the last one so she could have never gone to college,” Holzem said. “She moved here for a little bit of college until I was born so she got out of college, and my dad didn’t grow up in a nice neighborhood so he reminds me you can do anything if you actually believe.”

In Germany, school days are shorter, but it is more difficult. Holizem prefers the difficult schooling in Germany more than America’s longer days and less difficulty.

“I liked it in Germany more because it was harder. We got to have a head start to learn for a test. We had 40 pages to learn, and every single word needed to be remembered. We got a B or better on the test so it was challenging to get grades up,” Holzem said.

When Holzem lived in Germany, cheer worked in a different way than it works in America. She prefers America because of the differences in scoring.

“In Germany you are only allowed to move on in the competition when you have to have a certain amount of points and a rank. let’s say we were 4th, but we don’t have enough points, we aren’t allowed to move on to another competition” Holzem said.

Depending on if she gets a scholarship in America or not she may choose to go back to Germany.

“Whether I stay here depends on if I get a scholarship or not. We’re probably staying here if I do, and if not, we’re moving back to Germany so I can go to a German college” Holzem said.

Holzem is interested in math, she would like to get a scholarship relating to that. She has plenty of ideas for dream colleges she would like to attend, like MIT or Stanford.

“I want to do something with math in my future. My two dream colleges are MIT and Stanford, but other than that I don’t really have any idea,” Holzem said.