Profiles

A longtime resident of suburban Chicago’s Melrose Park, Tom Olson is an indefatigable supporter of a multitude of youth, civic and charitable organizations, earning a plethora of awards for his efforts to actively fundraise and lend his creative skills pro bono. So how much time does Olson devote to public service? “Unlimited, to ensure success,” he replies. “I love what I do and the people I do it with! Seeing the joy in the people’s faces that we help makes everything worthwhile.” Olson retired in 2012 after close to three decades of work for his alma mater, Triton College in …

Mariangela Bonasera and Maria Barbanente are admired, veteran Italian language instructors who, as co-presidents of the Midwest Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Italian, help facilitate fellowship among their peers. It’s especially important for Italian teachers to have a community like AATI to turn to because there may be only one Italian teacher in a school and even an entire district, according to Barbanente. Barbanente, who is in her 12th year at Highland Park High School, is teaching every Italian class at her school as well as one Spanish class this school year. Bonasera, who is teaching around …

While studying abroad in Italy, Jennifer Buono fell in love with the country’s language and culture. That experience eventually led to a career teaching Italian. Today, Buono is entering her 11th year teaching Italian at York Community High School in Elmhurst, but Italian wasn’t the language that first captured her interest. Growing up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Buono was drawn to languages from a young age. With only Spanish and French offered at her middle school and Glenbard South High School, she chose the latter. “I have always loved languages, and as a young child I was very interested in …

An article he ran across in a National Geographic as a child set Keith Pellegrini on a path to becoming a linchpin in Green Beret operations and campaigns for nearly three decades. The youngest of three, Keith Pellegrini was born in the Chicago suburbs to Eugene and Patricia Pellegrini. The family lived in Bellwood until moving to Westchester when Pellegrini was in seventh grade. Pellegrini lived close to his grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. “We were always at each other’s houses,” he says. “They were either at our house, or we were at their house.” Pellegrini remembers eating together, the …

Working for the Italian Trade Agency since she was a university student, Paola De Faveri has devoted her career to helping Italian companies go international. The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) is the Italian governmental agency that supports the business development of Italian companies abroad and works to promote foreign investment in Italy. ITA operates through a network of 69 offices and 18 satellite offices in 74 countries. The Chicago office is led by Paola De Faveri, a native of Rome who has worked for ITA for nearly 40 years. De Faveri talked to Fra Noi about the agency, its focus …

Performing virtually non-stop since his late ’70s debut on the sitcom “Taxi,” Tony Danza has charmed his way into the hearts of legions of loyal fans over the decades. Tony Danza is one of those fortunate actors who has been around forever in one incarnation or another. Awards aside, he has also won the hearts of millions of fans across several generations as a television icon and show-biz legend. Born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza on April 21,1951, in Brooklyn, New York, he is the son of a bookkeeper mother and a garbage collector father. His deep Italian roots in the regions …

For high school Italian teacher Natalie Del Percio, the language of her ancestors is a bridge that has connected her to her heritage as well as her family throughout the generations and around the world. A dual citizen of Italy and the United States, Del Percio has roots that extend across several regions. Her mother’s family comes from Mazzano Romano, near Rome, and San Giovanni in Fiore, Calabria, while her father’s family is from Volturara Irpina in Campania. Both sides of her family settled in Melrose Park. There, Del Percio’s grandfather opened a plumbing business that her father later took …

When he was about 10 years old, Lorenzo Fiorentino listened to his uncle Bernardo describe his service in the Italian Army during World War II with pride, but never glory. Those conversations planted the seed that inspired Fiorentino to join the U.S. Army, and later morphed into an unbridled desire to recognize the contribution and sacrifices of his fellow veterans. Fiorentino is the driving force behind the creation of Chicagoland Veterans Campus (CVC) located at 39 Army Trail Boulevard in a 100-year-old former school building owned by St. Paul Lutheran Church. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the CVC is the result of …

When Mary Ann Pedersen first joined the Highwood Bocce Club, she had no aspirations to be in leadership. “I wasn’t thinking in that direction,” Pedersen says. It was just before the COVID-19 pandemic and she was one of several women who took part in Sunday Funday, an informal, non-competitive experience for women who wanted to learn how to play bocce. Pedersen and her husband had joined in part because they had the time now that their kids were away at college. “I’m 100 percent Italian and an Italian speaker and I figured it could be a way to practice my …

An acclaimed actor in her native Italy, Cristiana Dell’Anna truly inhabited the role of America’s first saint when she crossed the Atlantic to star in the 2024 biopic. Ah, classic films. They just get better with age, like the wines of Tuscany. They’re life-altering and perspective-establishing. The actors become part of our families, with regular visits on phones, computers and flat-screen TVs. “They just don’t make ’em like that anymore” is a common refrain. Some films become classics over time, while others are classics the moment they hit the theaters, touching our hearts, feeding our souls and inspiring change. In …