Profiles

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 …

Greg Padovani’s resume includes 17 bullet points under the list of organizations he has served with, and 12 under the list of honors he has received. And neither list is fully complete. A U.S. Army veteran, Padovani is the president and founder of PENS Communications Systems, LLC, and lives in his hometown of Arlington Heights. He is widely regarded there, and throughout the region, as a dedicated champion of veterans’ causes. “It’s in my nature to serve and help others,” he says. “I have tried to learn from, and pattern my life after, leaders and inspirational people. Some I would …

Over the six years Stuart Caravello has spent with Columbian Club Charitable Foundation, the organization doubled the amount of money given to each academic scholarship recipient. Being part of the foundation’s scholarship program is the thing Caravello will miss most now that his time as foundation trustee and chairman has come to an end. “It’s bittersweet,” he says. “I need a break, but I actually love it. It’s so rewarding.” Caravello loves the feeling of giving and seeing the expressions on the student’s faces when they receive their academic grants. He first witnessed that joy at the 2009 installation dinner, …

The Italian American community knows Jean Parisi best as La Befana, the good Christmas witch who made appearances for decades at yuletide celebrations throughout the Chicago area. But that’s just the tip of the cultural iceberg for this veteran community arts activist. Over the decades, she has created massive community art installations, staged plays with puppets of her own making and performed commedia dell’arte, the traditional Italian improvisational theater. She’s also taught a range of visual and performing arts to students of all ages and experiences including families, senior citizens and individuals with special needs. And for 30 years she …

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 …

For Christopher Derks, finally becoming president of the Columbian Club of Chicago is an honor … and a bit of surprise. “You work your way up through the ranks, so you know it’s coming,” he says of the presidency. “It has come a lot quicker than I was expecting.” Derks will assume the presidency on Jan. 1, but the club’s annual installation dinner has been moved from its traditional time slot in January to April 12 at Cuneo Mansion. Joining Derks as officers will be First Vice President Gerald Iannuzzelli, Second Vice President Edoardo Izzi, Third Vice President Michael Quaid, …

Assigned to a motor transport unit in Vietnam, Michael Pawelek drove a variety of vehicles while tackling other duties such as working the switchboard, manning bunkers on night duty and setting up ambush sites. Michael Pawelek was born in Chicago to Edward and Marie Sartor Pawelek. The family lived in an apartment behind Edward’s barbershop on the South Side until moving to Park Ridge when Pawelek was 5 years old. His maternal grandparents emigrated from a town near Venice, Italy, settling in Eveleth, Minnesota, and his paternal grandparents from the area around Warsaw, Poland, settling in Summit, Illinois. “In the …

A generation removed from far northeastern Italy, Micky Dolenz skyrocketed to fame as a driving force behind one of America’s most beloved ’60s pop groups and he’s still performing today. “Hey! Hey! We’re the Monkees!” was a familiar ditty that drew so many of us to our black-and-white television sets with the “bunny-ear” antennas on Monday evenings in the mid-’60s. For me, it was the Saturday morning reruns of the ’70s that bound me to America’s Marx Brothers-esque answer to the Mop-Top British Invasion. Davy Jones, the British heartthrob and tambourine playing vocalist; Peter Tork, the simple, soft-spoken bassist; and …

Steve Serio, co-captain of the U.S. Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball team, says he never thought he would have the honor of being named a flag bearer for Team USA. And yet there he was with fellow para athlete Nicky Nieves, leading the 225-member Team USA Paris delegation down the famed Champs-Élysées during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games. “To be voted flag bearer among my peers, it’s one of the most special moments of my career,” Serio says. Serio’s career has had no shortage of special moments. As co-captain, he helped lead the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball …

Hooked on science ever since his parents bought him a chemistry set at the age of 10, Dr. Louis Ignarro’s life was transformed when he discovered the remarkable impact that nitric oxide has on our overall health. The son of uneducated Italian immigrants, Dr. Louis J. Ignarro won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 for a discovery that led to important advances in promoting cardiovascular health. His memoir, “Dr. NO: The Discovery That Led to a Nobel Prize and Viagra,” was published in 2022. His second book, “The Miracle Molecule,” is expected out this year. Now a professor emeritus …