An average of 52.6 million people in the United States can speak Spanish.

Señora Amy Stover has been teaching at Notre Dame Academy for 12 years and has been the administrator for the Spanish Club for ten.

When the old administrator of the Spanish Club left and the spot became available, Stover jumped at the opportunity.

“I was looking to get involved in other things outside the classroom, so I applied and got the job,” explained Stover.

Most clubs meet once or twice a month, but Spanish Club doesn’t have meetings.

“We don’t have meetings,” Stover said. “We usually have 90 to 100 students that sign up every year.”

The club’s purpose is to expose students to Spanish culture that can’t necessarily be covered in the classroom.

“It is not convenient to take a field trip to a restaurant to have a nice authentic meal or to have a cooking lesson,” said Stover. “These are things we get to do a little more easily after school.”

The club does a good job of exposing teenagers to Spanish culture they don’t get to experience inside of school. Spanish Club makes it easier to comprehend the authentic culture.

It can be hard to know when the outings are if you don’t have Stover as a teacher.

“I try to post it on Haiku, in my classroom, on daily announcements and hope for a good turnout,” said Stover. “Even if you are walking by, you can pop your head in to see when the next outing is.”

The club has been thriving with more and more students each year, but there has been some decrease in attendance in the past couple years.

“There was much more active student involvement about eight years ago,” explained Stover. “I think students are way overbooking themselves.”

NDA senior Gracie Degroot, co-president of the club, has been in the club since freshman year.

“I really enjoyed the language, and I thought it would be fun so I decided to join,” said Degroot.

When coming to NDA, it can be pretty hard to choose a language with the choices available.

“I thought it would have the most relevance in my life with the number of Spanish-speaking people in the area and around the U.S.,” Degroot said.

Degroot and others help choose where and what to do at each outing.

“We usually go to an authentic Spanish restaurant and enjoy cultural food,” Degroot explained. “And we have an event that is a cooking class where everyone learns how to cook authentic Spanish food.”

The main focus of Spanish Club is to help broaden student  horizons to the worldwide romantic language and culture.

Even if you don’t take the language, anyone is welcome to join the club.