Back @ the Prep

Mr. Scannapieco '09

The Brothers Scannapieco: Mike '09, Matt '03, Pat '09

Hey everyone, I’m Mr. Mike Scannapieco '09 and I’m back at the Prep this year in the Alumni Service Corps working in the Admissions Office. My first memories of wanting to go to the Prep were the football games I went to when my older brother (Matt '03) was at the Prep. I watched guys like Kyle Ambrogi and Pat Kaiser win championships and break city records. They were like superheroes to me. I remember going to my brother’s crew regattas and watching the 2000 Varsity 8 roar down the river. My mom told me that summer that they went on to win at Henley. “What does that mean?” I asked. “It means they’re the best high school boat in the world.” I was hooked.

I wanted to come back for ASC because after my four years here, the Prep meant a lot more to me than just sports and championships. I made lifelong friends. I was inspired by teachers, some of them even Alumni Service Corps guys. I genuinely felt like I was a part of something- call it a family, or a brotherhood, whatever you want -but it’s here and it’s palpable. I can see it in the upperclassmen in the halls and I can see it forming in the freshman when I’m at football practice or in the cafeteria. I came back because I wanted to be in that atmosphere again.

My most memorable class at the Prep was Film & Lit my senior year with Mr. Patragnoni. I had always enjoyed movies and it sounded better than taking a class on Shakespeare. I figured we would read a few books, watch some well-known movies, and write papers on them. But Mr. Patragnoni encouraged us to go to the Philadelphia Film Festival and see a whole new range of films there, he had us read and watch The Diving Bell & the Butterfly, a French memoir and film that I never would've read or seen otherwise (I highly recommend it), and he had us produce our own short film. The next four years I studied Film at TempleUniversity, all because I found what I loved at St. Joe’s Prep.