The enormous positive impact of Italian immigrants on America has never garnered much attention in grade and high school classrooms across the state. But when longtime Illinois educator Diana Hartmann, Ed. S., noticed that books on the subject were disappearing from the shelves of school libraries, she decided to take action.

“I wanted to make sure that Italian-American contributions and experiences received the credit they were due,” says Hartmann, an educational administrator of Italian descent. “But I wanted to make sure we weren’t reinventing the wheel.”