Senora Stover: Her Story, Her Passion, Her Role at NDA

Ava Vande Corput

Many people know Senora Stover simply as Senora, one of the Spanish teachers who has been teaching at Notre Dame for 12 ½ years.

However, before Stover became a Spanish teacher, her original degree was a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in accounting and a minor in Spanish.

“Spanish was fun and easy for me in high school, so I minored in it in hopes to be able to study abroad in college. I ended up spending a semester in Ecuador, and it was awesome,” said Stover.

When she returned to the United States, she had no intention of continuing with Spanish in her career because she would have had to relocate due to there being not much of a need for Spanish in Northeast Wisconsin.

So, she began working at Schneider National as a securement equipment manager for their flatbed division.

After 2 ½ years of that, she decided to look for another position internally.

“Schneider had just purchased a trucking company in Mexico City, and my manager asked me if I’d like to go down and help them in the accounting department as no one in the Green Bay accounting dept spoke Spanish. It was rough speaking the language after not using it for 2 1/2 years, but it came back relatively quickly, and I ended up living down there for nine months,” said Stover.

Then, she became a Financial Analyst for Mexico and traveled to Green Bay and Mexico City for the next seven years.

“It was a pretty awesome experience and opportunity for someone who didn’t want to leave Green Bay to use her Spanish language skills,” said Stover.

Once she and her husband started a family, they decided that something had to give as they did not want to have their children in a daycare for nine to ten hours every day.

Stover decided to go back to college to get her teaching certificate and be able to teach Spanish.

“After being back in school for 1 1/2 years, I was given the opportunity to teach at NDA and have been here since.  ​When I was in 8th grade I wanted to be a teacher, but then, in high school, I took Spanish and accounting classes and liked them so I thought that would be my career path, but God had other plans and brought teaching back into view as a career,” stated Stover.

Along with being a teacher, Stover also works with Spanish-speaking families that have children that will be or are currently attending Notre Dame.

“I translate between NDA faculty/staff and the parents/grandparents​ that do not speak English.  So, if there is an attendance issue or a discipline issue or a teacher would like to reach out to families, I make the call home,” she explained.

She also helps families apply for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, and she helps with registering incoming freshman and transfer students that have Spanish-speaking families.

“I answer questions from parents and help them understand things like PowerSchool, BYOD, book pick-up, transitions, summer school, and camps..  I also advocate for and support students with Spanish-speaking parents,” said Stover.

Currently, she is helping around 20 families, but next year is expecting that the number will either double or triple.

“I have always been passionate about supporting these students and parents, so filling this role was right for me,” said Stover.