Now in his fourth year as an Italian teacher at Resurrection College Prep in Chicago, Francesco Campobasso credits a conversation with his cousins in Italy for steering him toward his true passion. After earning a bachelor’s degree of commerce in finance from DePaul University in Chicago, Campobasso worked for various banks for 15 years despite having always wanted to be a teacher.
Then, during a visit to Italy in October 2019, he found himself having honest conversations with family about what he really wanted to do. On his final night there, his cousins gifted him a bracelet inscribed with a quote in Italian by Vincent Van Gogh: “Che cosa sarebbe la vita se non avessimo il coraggio di correre dei rischi” (“What would life be if we didn’t have the courage to take risks”).
