OHS Senior Jeff Oemichen, son of Sandy and Peter Oemichen, cites the encouragement of key people in his life as the reason he decided to join choir his senior year of high school. “My parents and some of my friends really encouraged me to join choir,” reports Oemichen. “My sister Annie loves to sing, and when she sings, I like to join in, so she thought I might like choir, too.” He also credits the continued encouragement of Ms. Heather Rattmann and Ms. Jennifer Yancey, OMS and OHS choir teachers, as instrumental in his decision to join choir.

Though only a participant in the choir program for one year, Oemichen has a long career of singing in musical theater. His first experiences involved playing the roles of Lord and later King, in the OMS madrigal dinners in seventh and eighth grades. This experience led Oemichen to sing in the chorus in the OHS production of "The Wizard of Oz" his freshman year of high school and finally to playing the supporting role of Sonny in the OHS 2008 production of "Grease". He has also participated in Oregon Straw Hat Players musical productions for four years. Oemichen reports participation in choir has helped to improve his voice, and he looks forward to performing in musicals after graduation.

Oemichen enjoys listening to music that is up beat, citing the musical group The Four Season songs "Sherry" and "December, 1963" as examples of the type of music he prefers. “Up beat music gets me in a good mood,” explains Oemichen. “It helps me to not think about the things that could be going wrong in my life.”

Oemichen is a member of the OHS swim team, Stoughton Lacrosse team and Oregon Police Explorers. He plans on attending MATC in the Fall to pursue a career in law enforcement.