Like many successful educators, DuPage High School District 88 Superintendent Jean Barbanente was inspired to embark on the profession by a wonderful teacher. Her Italian teacher at Maine South High School in suburban Chicago’s Park Ridge, Stella Martorana Weber, made Italian language, history and culture come alive for her students, Barbanente recalls.
“She engaged us in a way I had never experienced before,” she recalls. “She truly cared about each and every one of us. She motivated me not only to continue to study Italian, but to add additional languages to my studies, and to consider education as a professional pursuit. I took her advice and learned Spanish, and later Portuguese.”
