WOODBURY, Minn. – It was the first day of her freshman year at the University of Mary in Bismarck, and Amelia Gold’s stomach was grumbling. So she risked asking a fellow student she’d just met at orientation to possibly grab lunch with her.
Autumn Kotrba’s “Yes!” led to an abiding friendship. They became roommates, shared classes as communications majors, and swapped stories of living life boldly as young Christians. Gold describes Kotrba as down to earth and very joyful.
“She has a presence to her that’s just real and different than a lot of people I’ve met.” Despite their similarities, their lives also contrast in ways. Gold grew up in this suburb city with one brother, while Kotrba, the oldest of eight children, spent much of her childhood in rural Moorhead, among sheep, chickens, pigs, a few llamas, a donkey, dogs and cats.
“It’s been very inspiring to say the least,” Gold says, noting that, along with full-time school, Kotrba works at a news station in Bismarck as an evening production assistant, and as program director for a Just For Kix dance studio. ADVERTISEMENT She’s also produced a documentary, “ Come and See ,” detailing a 10-day mission trip to a poverty-stricken area of Peru last summer, which she experienced with eight fellow parishioners, ages 14 to adult, through their home parish, Holy Spirit Church in Fargo. “It’s cool to see her so focused at 20 years old, working on so many different things, and so passionate,” Gold s.