Language Profiles

Picture this: You grow up dreaming of becoming an opera singer, but your Italian parents have other ideas — drastic ones — that start with a one-way trip to a convent. “My father said, ‘No daughter of mine is going out and singing in a heavily male atmosphere,'” recalls M. Stella Weber. My parents were threatening to send me to Italy to become a nun. I was so scared since my mother had a cousin who was a nun. I thought my goose was cooked.” Instead, Weber took the music in her voice and channeled it into the Italian language, …

Many teachers will tell you that positive feedback is a waiting game: You may never know whether you’re having any impact until a student submits a major paper or delivers an important presentation. But for Laura Longano Cimmarrusti, each and every day provides her with inspiration. She loves how she gets to hear her students speak Italian in every class, and thus track their progress over the days and weeks. That, she adds, keeps her focused on doing her very best for the pupils of Notre Dame College Prep in north suburban Niles. “This is my second year at this …