For Stephanie Vondal, June, July and August don’t necessarily equate to time outside of the classroom.
“This is my fourth year running the summer reading program,” said the 40-year-old educator who, by summer, serves at the site supervisor at Table Mound Elementary School for Dubuque Community School District’s Summer Academy, a free four-week program that aims to help incoming second-graders strengthen literacy skills.
By the school year, Vondal is a second grade teacher at Eisenhower Elementary School, where she has taught for the past five years. Prior to that, she taught at Marshall Elementary School for a decade, with a brief stint at Thomas Jefferson Middle School working in special education.
It’s a labor of love for the teacher whose educational interest took root in Dubuque.
“I always wanted to be a teacher, for as long as I can remember,” Vondal said, her genuine energy and enthusiasm for the profession apparent. “I think it started for me back as a student at Fulton Elementary School. I just always had such amazing teachers. And I always was looking for a way to help them out or to organize the classroom.”
After attending Jefferson, then graduating from Dubuque Senior High School — her passion for education still intact — she began pursuing her undergraduate degree at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. However, she became pregnant with her daughter — now 21 — while in school and returned to Dubuque, attending Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa.
“It’s a part of my story,” Vondal said. “It’s never been anything I’ve felt ashamed of.”
She completed her degree in 2008 at University of Dubuque, and in 2015, took on a master’s degree from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D.
While at Marshall, Vondal specialized in working with at-risk students, individuals for whom she said she has a soft spot.
“All kids need you,” she said. “Some kids just need more of you. But it can take an emotional toll.”
And after 10 years, it did.
After transitioning to teaching second grade Eisenhower, Vondal said she discovered a renewed energy for teaching.
“I think when you come into the classroom with energy and excitement about your job, that really can be felt by the kids,” she said. “It feels cliche to say that, as teachers, we’re building a connection with our students because that’s a give in. What we’re really striving to do is build a community. And that’s really important to me to be able to do.”
Vondal, along with her husband, is an identical twin. Her sister, LeeAnn Peterson, also is an educator in Dubuque, working as a school liaison at Marshall Elementary School, as well as alongside Vondal for the Summer Academy at Table Mound.
“We’re the dynamic duo,” Peterson said, with a laugh. “Stephanie is the best teacher, hands down. With her infectious energy, she really knows how to help kids engage. That can be difficult with everything teachers are up against today, with technology and other factors influencing kids’ lives. But she is able to build connections with them, and that extends to their families as well. She takes on a team approach.”
Despite the uncertainties facing those in education today — technology in the classroom, budget cuts, school closures and a host of challenges impacting this generation of students — Vondal, now coming into her 16th year of teaching, said she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“It never feels as though it has been that long,” said Vondal, who enjoys time with family, wine nights with girlfriends and engaging in a strong network of support among her fellow educators. “At the end of the day, you still are impacting young lives and teaching them how to think in the world. That matters.”
Megan Gloss writes for the Telegraph Herald.
