LYNNFIELD — Andrew Vittiglio wants to make sure that everyone hears the inspiring stories his St. John’s Prep classmates have to tell.
A senior from Lynnfield, Vittiglio was one of the organizers of the school’s first TEDx event, which took place virtually in January. Standing for technology, entertainment and design, TED had its origins as a one-off conference in 1984 that lost money, a generation before TED talks became a viral video and radio phenomenon.
Vittiglio said he was inspired by a friend’s story of his summer job working in a lab.
“I thought, ‘he could tell me this story now, but I’m sure so many more students and more people at the Prep would want to hear what he was doing,’” Vittiglio said. “We felt like it was the best way to share ideas and experiences with the Prep community.”
Vittiglio and Prep junior Ansh Motiani of North Andover organized the event, which featured eight student speakers who gave talks on the theme of kinship.
“The motivation behind this event was to simply share students’ unique experiences and ideas because Prep students have incredible things to say and we wanted to provide people with an opportunity to hear them,” Vittiglio said. “We felt our talks really connected back to this idea of kinship. As I mentioned to the viewers, kinship can sometimes feel abstract — it’s different for different people, so we wanted to display kinship through different lenses, hopefully giving the audience a better understanding of its meaning.”
In addition to TEDx, Vittiglio and Motiani formed the Northeast Environmental Youth Organization when Vittiglio was a sophomore to find more opportunities for community service. Vittiglio said the group doesn’t have any one focus, other than giving back to the community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, they and other volunteers delivered groceries to elderly and immunocompromised people in their area, and made home-cooked meals in eco-friendly containers to hand out to people living on Boston’s Methadone Mile.
“You never get to walk through Methadone Mile and just talk to these people,” Vittiglio said. “It was really eye-opening for us.”
Vittiglio is also a member of the National Honor Society (NHS) and German-language NHS, runs cross-country, and acts as a leader in the Spire Society, an admission and advancement group for the school. An AP Scholar with Distinction, Vittiglio is a perennial Headmaster’s List Honoree and is currently enrolled in five AP courses with a 4.46 GPA.
Vittiglio also serves as co-director of the Prep’s Community of Concern, a student-run leadership group that promotes healthy decision-making and wellness through peer training and initiatives that focus on the social-emotional health of the Prep community. He is also the co-founder of Northeast Environmental Youth Organization, a blog and platform for food waste donations to local food pantries for the impoverished.
Vittiglio’s many accomplishments have been recognized on multiple occasions. He is a recipient of the NHS Transcript Award and has received an Academic Excellence Award and Computer Science Medal. He has also received the school’s Campus Ministry Award as well as the St. Michael’s College Book Award.
When not in school, Vittiglio spends many hours volunteering in the community. He is a CCD instructor at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Lynnfield and has also volunteered with PULSE (Prep Urban Life Life Service Experience) working with Boston’s inner-city residents. He has also volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of Salem and with the Essex County Youth Soccer Association.
While he hasn’t decided what college he will attend next year, he knows that he wants to go into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field, and is considering majoring in either engineering, computer science, neuroscience and biology.