Salutations Mr. Stieva

Written by: Kayla Strike 

Contributors: Madeleine Homer

T.A. Blakelock is excited to welcome a new principal into our school community. Along with a wealth of experience, knowledge, and much more, Mr. Stieva has been appointed to begin his role this school year. As he gets to know a little bit more about TAB, there is so much the student body has to learn about him. Writers at the TABloid were given the opportunity to speak with Mr. Stieva.

Mr. Stieva has been in education for a total of 46 years, and has spent 25 years as a school principal. Mr. Stieva began his journey into education at McMaster University where he completed his undergraduate studies in Anthropology and Sociology. After that, he went on to teachers college at OCT in Toronto. He then studied at York and Brock University to receive his Special Education qualifications. Later, he received his first year of principals’ qualifications from Queens University and his second year qualifications from Western University. Mr. Stieva suggests to the members of the student body who are looking to pursue a post secondary education, “Take what interests you, and what you are good at. Don’t ever give up because no matter how difficult sometimes things get, you do have the skills to get through it”. 

Outside of school, Mr. Stieva spends lots of time with his family. He has been married for 54 years, and is surrounded by his two children, as well as his three grandchildren. The family spends quality time together each weekend, usually sharing a meal together. 

During summer and winter break he especially enjoys traveling to England and Italy. When he is not traveling, he enjoys gardening and reading mystery or historical fiction novels. His trips to England helped him to understand his readings of historical fiction. For example, he stayed where Charles Dickens grew up, and he was able to observe where he got all of his creative ideas from. 

When asked what he would do if he could only listen to one genre of music for the rest of his life, he replied that he “is quite the fan of classical music”. In his office he keeps a Bose which is accompanied by several of the CD’s of classical music that he listens to the most. He enjoys listening to composers such as Purcell, who compose a renaissance or baroque style of music.

In the future, potentially within his retirement, Mr. Stieva says he hopes to golf a lot more as he does recreationally right now. Though, when speaking to the past, he states that some of his favorite memories are of the “youngsters” he has taught in the past. He especially enjoys it when he is given the opportunity to see how far they have come in the future. This past July, one of the players from a softball team in which he coached organized a reunion for the team, the first time they had seen each other in 21 years. 

T.A. Blakelock is confident that Mr. Stieva will be a wonderful addition to our community and is eager to see the positive impact we are sure he will have within our school. Make sure to wave, say hi, or even introduce yourself to Mr. Stieva if you see him in the hallways, and give him a warm welcome.