Retirement is a major turning point in one’s life. It symbolizes moving on to bigger and greater things and is a time for relaxation or for some, the opposite, such as traveling. For social studies teacher, Nancy Bader, she plans on doing just that.

Bader has reached that point in her life and is ready to retire. Not to mention, she is ending her career with the prestigious Partnership award.

Every year, eight staff from the Stillwater district are nominated and selected for the Partnership award. Each award winner is given $1000 to donate to a school of their choice, and Bader chose SAHS.

“Mr. Bach nominated me, and some of my colleagues wrote letters of recommendation, and they sent it in, and I got selected! I was completely taken by surprise,” Bader said.

Each nominee has to make a speech when they are awarded, and for Bader, that was easy. She talked about how she realized she wanted to be a teacher. When she first went to college she wanted to be a social worker, but when she took a history class, it turned on a light bulb in her head about history which helped her realize she wants to teach history. 

“I talked about how I first went to college as an adult, not a kid right out of high school, and that I didn’t want to be a teacher. There was no way I wanted to be a teacher, but then I ended up being one, and I found out that I just love it because I get to talk about three things: I get to talk about history, which is awesome for me, I get to meet 160 some kids every year, and they work really hard, and I get to work with cool teachers. I get to work with really smart and great people,” Bader said.

Her career at SAHS has not only made an impact on her students, but her colleagues will miss her dearly. She is one of two social studies teachers retiring this year, and now the department has to hire four new teachers to replace them.

Social studies teacher Mike Kaul said, “I will miss her support, her encouragement and her wisdom, she’s very wise. She is the glue that holds our social studies department together.”

 She has traveled a lot throughout her career, giving her a lot of experience. During the summers, she would travel on teacher grants and got to travel with other teachers around the country. She got to go to China, Korea, and England. It is no surprise that she is well liked by her students and colleagues, she is very experienced in what she teaches, and on top of that, she is very caring and has dedicated so much of her time and energy to her students.

Former student and junior Maddie Blonski said, “Ms. Bader was always kind and understanding as a person. As a teacher, she always knew what she was talking about and how to help you. And as a mentor, she pushed me to be my best self.”

Bader had a great career. She taught here at SAHS for 18 years, and seven years at a high school in Sacramento, CA. There is a lot that she is going to miss.

“I’ll miss students, and I’ll really miss all the staff here.  I’ve gotten to be really good friends with them, that’s what I’ll miss. I won’t miss getting up at 5 a.m., and grading essays on the weekends, but I will miss the people and community,” Bader said.

Now that retirement is here, Bader has a few ideas of what she wants to do next.

“I have six and a half grandchildren, one’s not born yet, and I want to spend more time with them, but they’re on the west coast, so I’ll probably be traveling more and spending longer times on the west coast. And then I want to travel, and I want to read books other than the Bentley textbook, because I’ve read it so much. I want to volunteer, right now I record books for the blind. I want to get involved in some social service organizations. I also want to learn how to speak Spanish and do math, I’m terrible at math,” Bader reflects.

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Lauren LeBourgeois

Social studies teacher Nancy Bader is retiring and will miss her hard working students. “They’re really with me every day, and supporting what we’re doing. I’ll miss the community of the people at the school,” Bader says.