Language Profiles

After nearly two decades in the classroom, Laura Calo still speaks about teaching with the same enthusiasm she had as a child pretending to run her own classroom in Italy. Her journey from playing make believe in a small Pugliese town to leading classes in Italian and Spanish in a Chicago suburb has been shaped by the forces of immigration and culture, and a lifelong passion for education. Calo was born in Chicago, but when she was only a year and a half old, her family moved back to their hometown of Mola di Bari. She spent the next nine …

If she hadn’t trusted her instincts, Carla Cornette would have never embarked on the circuitous path that eventually led her to find her life’s passion: teaching Italian. In fact, that’s precisely her advice for young people. “Listen to your gut!” she says. “If you’re passionate about something, follow that and make it work.” A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Cornette is the director of undergraduate studies for the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Missouri, where she also teaches Italian. Cornette has taught at the University of Missouri (nicknamed “Mizzou”) for the last three years after teaching …

  Shawna Hennessey has been an Italian instructor at Fenwick High School for 19 years. Affectionately referred to as “Prof” by her students, she teaches with genuine enthusiasm and commitment. But if you had asked her two decades ago where she’d be today, she never would have imagined the role she’s come to love so deeply. Hennessey was born in Minneapolis but grew up in Western Springs, a southwest suburb of Chicago. Though her father is mostly of Irish descent, her mother traces her roots to Amaseno, a small town in the Lazio region of Italy. Hennessey’s maternal grandparents immigrated …

Now in his fourth year as an Italian teacher at Resurrection College Prep in Chicago, Francesco Campobasso credits a conversation with his cousins in Italy for steering him toward his true passion. After earning a bachelor’s degree of commerce in finance from DePaul University in Chicago, Campobasso worked for various banks for 15 years despite having always wanted to be a teacher. Then, during a visit to Italy in October 2019, he found himself having honest conversations with family about what he really wanted to do. On his final night there, his cousins gifted him a bracelet inscribed with a …

When Italian teacher Alessia Defraia earned a scholarship for an internship at the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago, she thought she’d spend about three months in the city. Eighteen years later, she is still there, having amassed an impressive breadth and depth of experience in her field. “I jokingly say I’m like the ‘Nutella of Chicago’ because I’m everywhere in the Italian teaching scene,” she says. Defraia is a part-time instructor at the University of Loyola Chicago, where she has taught elementary, intermediate and advanced Italian, teaching methodologies and Italian linguistics. She teaches Italian at the nonprofit ItalCultura, the Italian …

A native of Italy, Italian language teacher Cristina Tinnirello believes in providing students with a full immersion experience in the Italian language and culture, with the ultimate goal of helping them become better global citizens. Having learned five languages throughout her education, she understands the challenges and rewards of language learning, which inspires her to help others on their journey, she says. Tinnirello teaches Italian to students in kindergarten through 8th grade at Union Ridge School District 86 in Harwood Heights, just outside of Chicago, where she’s been since 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as a 5th grade …

“I always say I was born here, but my heart was truly born in Italy.” Those are the words of Anna Izzo, who studied in Italy, traveled the country extensively, and now teaches Italian at Elk Grove High School in suburban Chicago. Izzo, who calls herself “a student at heart,” holds several degrees. She has undergraduate degrees in Italian, Spanish and secondary education from the University of Iowa. She also has three master’s degrees: one in curriculum and instruction with an English Language Learning concentration from National Louis University; one in health and wellness from the American College of Education; …

When Enza Spilotro’s family moved from Chicago’s South Side to suburban Addison, she chose to attend the local public high school rather than a private institution because she wanted to take Italian language classes. Nowadays, Spilotro walks the halls of her alma mater, Addison Trail High School, as an Italian teacher, a role she’s held for the last 18 years. “From as far as I can remember, I wanted to teach,” she recalls. “I always had a natural desire to help others, and become involved in the educational system. I love giving back and teaching allows me to do that …

Being born in Palermo and growing up in Sicily, Monica Valenti Niespodziany used to gather her friends and play “pretend school,” putting herself in the role of the teacher. When she decided to become a teacher, her family wasn’t the least bit surprised, she says. Valenti Niespodziany has taught Italian at St. Joseph Catholic Academy in Kenosha since 2016. There, she has grown the Italian language program by starting an Italian Honor Society, launching an AP Italian course, and partnering with a school in Rome through the Italian Consulate in Chicago. She is also the world language department lead at …

On his way to becoming a history teacher, Michael Bodenhagen stumbled onto teaching Italian. Now, he’s found his passion, he says. Bodenhagen grew up in Homer Glen, Illinois, in a family that was very proud of its Italian heritage, he says. His maternal grandparents moved from Bari to the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, and relatives on his father’s side came from Termini Imerese, Sicily. “My mom and nonna would speak to each other in Italian, which would be the driving factor in my desire to learn Italian,” he says. “In addition, we would have big family parties …