Meet New Village School Alumni - ELSIE HOTTNER, Class of 2019
Aug 14, 2024
“We learned from a young age how to live amongst each other with respect.”
Elsie Hottner grew up on the water in Galilee Harbor and on land, here in Sausalito. (Her father, Anton Hottner, is a local boat maker.) She attended the New Village School from its inaugural Kindergarten class through 8th grade, followed by high school at Tamalpais in Mill Valley.
As a student of NVS from Kindergarten to 8th grade, I spent quite a bit of my life at the school. I grew up with, for the most part, the same people. Going on to a larger high school made me miss the closeness cultivated at NVS. Community was a significant part of our education and we learned from a young age how to live amongst each other with respect.
New Village’s emphasis on learning about cultures from all around the world, and the 8th grade vision quest—a rigorous South American trek, followed by a 2-day solo sit—in particular, also made an impact on Elsie.
Our teachers aimed to show us varying perspectives to gain a diverse view of the world. In my final year, our class took a trip to Peru, where we backpacked through the Andes. This was an incredible experience and something I may have never done otherwise, not to mention at 13 years old. It was exhausting but so rewarding to accomplish.
In the Fall, Elsie will begin her second year at College of Marin. She plans on transferring to a UC or a state school and has her sights on Berkeley and Santa Cruz, as she desires to stay in Northern California.
At the moment, I’d like to major in English with the plan of going into publishing. I love to write, hence my move towards English as a subject of focus. I enjoy writing short fiction and poetry, the latter of which continues to push me beyond my comfort zone. Two of my favorite authors are Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O’Connor. Their respective prose styles are so distinct, as they are both rather vicious and therefore incredibly engrossing. I’ve particularly liked McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses (one of his less violent) and O’Connor’s Wise Blood.
Where does Elsie envision herself in 5 years?
I would like to be working in a publishing house, hopefully still in California. I hope to still live on the coast, where I can continue to enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us. I like to imagine myself writing a novel and, with luck, getting my own work published.
A poem from Elsie’s creative writing class:
Ballad of the Trawlerman
I know a man who lives in nets
A face with urchin cheeks
He dances with the herring and trout
But oh— how he does reek!
In the dark and freezing stillness
‘Fore the sun pours her wine
He casts his nets to inky voids
Beard thawing from the rime
I later find him in the gloam
Gutting fish in lamplight
He gums a grubby cigarette
His knife, it shines too bright
This man works alone on ship
None know what lies ‘neath deck
By God, I cannot help but think—
To ask would cost my neck!