Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Now the principal of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral School in Chicago, Anna Cirilli owes her desire to pursue a career in school leadership to the overcrowding in Chicago public schools.
Cirilli worked as a teacher for kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades at Marcus Garvey Elementary School from 2000 to 2012. Her last year there, she taught a class of 38 students with no assistance.
“It was then that I realized I wanted to make a bigger impact by moving into school leadership,” she explains. “I believed that even the most dedicated teacher could only do so much when faced with overwhelming class sizes, particularly in communities where students come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and require individualized, strategic support to succeed.”
Cirilli has served since June 2015 as principal at St. Nicholas school, where pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students consistently demonstrate strong academic performance and earn acceptance into their first-choice competitive high schools across the city of Chicago.
In recent assessments, 94% of students performed at or above the national average in reading, and 99% performed at or above the national average in math.
The school offers programs in areas such as the stock market, entrepreneurship and mock trial, and has expanded its pre-kindergarten program to be year-round. “This helps us to create a stronger educational program building from the ground up,” Cirilli.
Before the war in Ukraine, St. Nicholas served a student population of 150, primarily immigrants and children or grandchildren of immigrants from Ukraine. As a result of the conflict, it has provided education for 200 Ukrainian refugees ages 3-14 over the last four years.
To accommodate the refugee students, the school had to come up with a thoughtful, multifaceted plan of action, Cirilli says.
“A real need emerged to better support these students in both English language acquisition and core content mastery as newly enrolled students. Through a dedicated professional learning program for teachers that included high-quality, job-embedded professional development activities, as well as ongoing real-time, targeted instructional coaching, teachers worked to create a robust, cutting-edge academic program that both supported legacy students as well as recently emigrated students from Ukraine,” she explains.
The school also provides ongoing social-emotional support through partnerships with local universities and institutions, as well as volunteers, to ensure that children’s needs are met during challenging times.
Partnerships with community organizations, groups and individuals have proven invaluable, she says. For example, the Chicago Bulls and White Sox have welcomed students and families to games and sports clinics.
“Three years ago, we barely had a basketball team,” Cirilli says. “Since the partnership and encouraging our students to explore new sports, we have made it to the Final Four in our Catholic Youth League for the past two years!”
Because 70% of the student population consists of English Language Learners, the school has hired extra staff to provide small group instruction. “Our team meets weekly on Wednesdays to analyze where students are and how each of them are doing. When we see a student start to fall behind or struggle, we develop a plan to support them,” she explains.
Supporting increasingly more Ukrainian refugee families comes with additional expenses, so the school has begun the process of creating marketing and development plans to secure non-tuition-based funding. The school is also working on securing additional partnerships with universities, organizations and volunteers who are willing to provide activities and experiences to further broaden students’ horizons.
The oldest of four siblings, Cirilli grew up in Superior, Wisconsin, a small town with few families of Italian heritage. As a result, her entire family and in particular her non-Italian mother, embraced Italian traditions. “It was very common to come home from school to see my mother making homemade noodles or ravioli with noodles laying across the backs of every kitchen chair to dry,” she recalls.
Her father was an attorney who worked closely with his father, Art Cirilli, a judge and state senator. “Seeing both of them serve the community reinforced an important lesson,” she says. “Success doesn’t have to be measured by personal success, but rather how you use your talents to make a difference in the lives of others.”
Cirilli earned bachelor’s degrees in sociology and elementary education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by a master’s degree in school leadership from Concordia University, and a certificate in leading inclusive Catholic schools from Loyola University.
Cirilli moved to Chicago in 2000 and spent 12 years as a teacher. Having worked in restaurants since age 15, she also worked at Mike Ditka’s Restaurant, where she truly fell in love with the city of Chicago, she says. “I met people from every neighborhood and every profession, and I became part of the Ditka family, who welcomed me into celebrations and milestones over the years. I will always have a special place in my heart for them.”
After deciding to leave the classroom in 2012, Cirilli resolved to challenge herself and explore her Italian heritage by moving to Italy. “I planned it out carefully,” she recalls.
She studied in Sardegna for a month to obtain a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate, then obtained short-term positions teaching English in ACLE Summer Camps throughout northern Italy, including San Remo, Milan and Brescia. Ultimately, she ended up in Pescara, Abruzzo, from August 2012 to July 2014 where she taught English to young children and professionals, sometimes six days a week.
“I was lucky, because in Pescara, not many people speak English. So I had a lot of work and had the opportunity to become fluent in speaking Italian!”
Her experience teaching abroad and working with diverse communities became an asset when she was hired as principal at St. Nicholas in 2015, especially as the school was preparing to serve an increasing number of Ukrainian students and families.
“Everything I had experienced — teaching, working in restaurants, living overseas, and building relationships — came together in ways I never could have planned. It’s a reminder that God often prepares us long before we realize where He is leading us.”
Editor’s Note: Several Italian-American individuals and organizations have generously supported St. Nicholas’ efforts on behalf of Ukrainian refugees. To find out more, contact Cirilli at (773-384-7243 cirilli@stnickschicago.org)
