Tag Archives: Michael Bodenhagen

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 …