Italian professor Tiziana Serafini, a voice for those caught up in the Italian refugee crises who was known to teach yoga classes in her native tongue to her students for extra credit, died in Rome from cancer Aug. 20. She was 62.

Serafini spent most of her time in the classroom since coming to Notre Dame in the fall of 2016 instructing courses for students just beginning to learn the Italian language. “Freshman year I had her as my first Italian professor ever,” Adele Bonomi, a senior, recalled. “I had never taken it before. It was online. She was the one who made me super passionate about Italian.”