Co-founder of First Public Chicago Dual Language School and Mundelein College Alumni Dies at 92

Janet Nolan, Mundelein College alumna and co-founder of Inter-American Magnet School, the first dual language school in Chicago died Oct. 28 at age 92 following a lifelong career in advocacy and connecting people through language and culture. 

Born May 9, 1932, Nolan led her life by example, not lecture, according to her 51-year old daughter Elena Lashmet. 

“She loved life, she loved people, she loved nature, she loved learning—that’s how she lived her life,” Lashmet said. “To inspire other people, but quietly, not by telling people what to do, by modeling an incredible work ethic.”

Lashmet recalled the way her mother was to those around her, and said Nolan, mother of two and grandmother to 12, lived a life of God.

When she attended Mundelein College from 1950 to 1952, she was still known as Janet Parmalee. Nolan contributed to the student newspaper of Mundelein College, The Skyscraper, and joined her first human rights organizations during her time at the college. 

During her second-year, she joined the Interracial Justice club in which she acted as a chairperson and also merited scholastic honors.

Nolan never described herself as smart, she said she just worked hard, according to her eldest daughter, Cristina Nolan, 52.

Nolan was very humble about her accomplishments and wasn’t a bragger, according to Lashmet.  

“She wanted to be in the background, elevating the people so their gifts and strengths could show through,” Lashmet said. 

Shortly after leaving Mundelein College Nolan joined the Maryknoll Sisters — the first group of Catholic Sisters in the U.S. to focus their mission overseas. There, she furthered her education, learned Spanish and traveled across the Americas. 

Nolan taught in New York, lived in Guatemala and advocated for those living in poverty while living in Yucatan, Mexico for six years, according to Cristina Nolan.

In the late 1960s, Nolan was recruited by the University of Notre Dame as an undercover nun and researcher in Chicago’s Puerto-Rican neighborhoods, according to Cristina Nolan. 

She was a key witness to the Division Street Rebellion and a contributor in dismantling Chicago’s Red Squad, a police organization which aimed to disband social groups they deemed threatening, according to a eulogy provided by Cristina Nolan.

Following these events, she married James Nolan in 1970 and had two daughters, according to Lashmet. The benefits of learning a second language would be passed onto her daughters. 

In 1975, Inter-American Magnet School first opened its doors. Nolan co-founded the school with her lifelong best friend and “soul sister,” Adela Coronado-Greeley, 90. Their daughters and grandchildren would later attend Inter-American Magnet School. 

The two envisioned a bridge between dual language education and the need for Spanish speakers to have a space where they could be educated in their own cultures while also learning another language. Lashmet said the two began by communicating with fellow parents and exposing them to the same excitement they themselves had for learning another language and culture. 

Nolan was inspired after visiting Mexico and witnessing children switch fluidly between Mayan and Spanish. Having grown up in Palatine, IL, she wasn’t used to seeing bilingualism. This instilled in her the importance of learning about other people through not only language but their culture, according to Lashmet. 

Growing up in East Los Angeles, Coronado-Greeley said she remembers a time where Spanish speakers were ostracized for not assimilating into American culture by speaking English. Coronado-Greeley said she didn’t want her daughters to grow up in the same environment she did. 

“My vision was to have a school where the Spanish-speaking child would be appreciated for the advantage of having another language and another culture,” Coronado-Greeley said.

Inter-American wasn’t solely a language school. For Nolan and Coronado-Greeley, the goal was to inspire knowledge and pride in the accomplishments of people across the Americas. Lashmet said it was important for Spanish speakers to preserve their language and culture while learning English and also decentered viewpoints based on eurocentrism.

Nolan returned to school to obtain her master’s degree from Loyola in 1988 when she was 56-years-old.

James Nolan passed away in 1986 but always supported his wife, Cristina Nolan said. 

Nolan left Inter-American when she felt she was no longer needed, according to Lashmet. She then worked for the Department of Language and Culture at the Chicago Board of Education.

When Nolan approached the Chicago Board of Education in 1975 about her vision, she envisioned a “pluralistic society” for the city of Chicago and its schools, according to Coronado-Greeley. 

Nolan eventually “retired” and worked part time as a professor of education at Northeastern Illinois University.

Lashmet said taking her mother’s class in the early 2000s when she attended Northeastern Illinois for her masters was an “amazing” experience. She said she learned about white privilege and critical race theory in the class. 

“She made people experience the things that she was teaching — she put them in the lessons,” Cristina Nolan said. “Nobody was ever bored.” 

In 2005, Nolan co-founded Multilingual Chicago, a grassroots initiative which embraced and recognized many of the languages spoken in Chicago.

The Seal of Biliteracy awarded by the Illinois State Board of Education to students displaying a high proficiency in more than one language, including English, upon graduation, according to Multilingual Chicago.

Students who receive the award are presented with an official recognition on their transcript and high school diploma, according to Kateri Halbleib, one of Nolan’s grandchildren.

Halbleib, 25, an Illinois Biliteracy Seal recipient said their grandmother was the matriarch — the center of the family who led by example

“She didn’t tell us the answer — she was always showing in the actions she did,” Halbleib said. 

Toward the later years of Nolan’s life, she spent her time learning Japanese and taking classes at the Japanese American Service Center on North Clark Street, according to Cristina Nolan. 

Well into her 80s, she was often seen at the Kimball Brown Line stop with her grandchildren, handing out and translating anti-war and violence pamphlets in Spanish for the Chicago Anti-War Coalition, according to Halbleib.

“She taught us it was really about action, not just your words,” Lashmet said.
“What are you willing to do? Who are you willing to stand up for?”