One of Malvern’s very own return to campus as a teacher–and is working alongside his father.

As students set up for band class, Mr. Antonio “Tony” Del Pizzo taps his foot and tunes a guitar, already humming the melody of the music and cleaning up after one of his classes.

“I’ve always had an interest in coming back and honestly the opportunity happened extremely fast and it was a fast process,” Del Pizzo said. “It kind of just happened.”

Del Pizzo has returned to his alma mater this year to teach middle school music, and work alongside his father, Emanuel Del Pizzo, to help with high school bands. However they’ve been working together for years already.

“We work a lot of weekends together too. And we’ve also had a painting company summers ago,” his father said. “So I’ve been working for a long time. It’s actually a lot of fun.”

Del Pizzo agrees that working closely with his dad is more familiar than strange. “Some people are like, ‘Oh what’s that like’ and I’m like, ‘it’s all the same.’ His office was my locker, and, I work with them all the time, he said. “Inside and outside [of school.. “So I don’t find it weird, or awkward or anything”

Del Pizzo also believes that working with family is a little more complicated than regular colleagues.

“You’re going to disagree with people, so being respectful when you do is this most important thing, you know. And sometimes when your family take things personally so I try not do that,” Del Pizzo said.

Emanuel also thinks that working together won’t be too much of a hardship, especially with Tony’s work ethic.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “It’s really interesting to see the other side of it…being a student and then coming and being a teacher, you really see what the teachers go through.”

-Antonio Del Pizzo ’11[/perfectpullquote]

“We kind of know each other pretty well,” he said. “And I think he’s a really good worker. He really puts his nose to the grind…and I’m kind of the same way. So it seems to work out.”

Although Del Pizzo seems okay working with his dad, his father thinks that it won’t be as easy as he thinks.

“He tolerates me,” he joked.

Although he works closely with Emanuel, Del Pizzo teaches his own sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes on the basics of music composition. He hopes that his students will learn what it takes to become a musician.

“The classes I teach are general music for [middle school]…what I want to accomplish is for [students] to have a basic understanding of what music is,” Del Pizzo said. “And to give them the opportunity to ask questions or dive deeper into any music knowledge that they already have.”

Before students can start creating their own music, Del Pizzo thinks that  they first must understand the rudiments. “Before we do that, I really want them to have a basic understanding and a solid foundation of what music is…bass, harmony, rhythms, all that,” he said.

The senior Del Pizzo thinks that teaching middle school is a challenge, but that his son will have to prepared for it.

I think he’ll do great. At least from what I’ve seen so far…I mean, talk about getting your feet wet, [with] being thrown into middle school,” he said. “If you can teach middle school you can teach anything. I used to teach middle school, and it’s a different kind of energy.”

Even though he agrees on it’s difficulty, Emanuel thinks that his son his is already prepared for the job. “I don’t really think it’s a hard job if you’re cut out for it,” he said.

Del Pizzo also offers his students the opportunity to make their own music outside of the bandroom.“I also bring seventh and the eighth graders into the recording studio and we work on songwriting and how to build songs and the different technology aspects of that,” he said.

Tony likes teaching middle schoolers because it is a chance to start new with a student no matter what school they previously attended. “They’re pretty much blank slates,” he said. “The thing is with middle schoolers you get new students at every grade level. And all of them are coming from different schools and have different backgrounds [with] music,” Del Pizzo said.

The junior Del Pizzo also knows that some kids will come with previous knowledge, so he has to make sure all of his students are on the same level. “Obviously, there are going to be those who have more experience. So I want to bridge that gap and get them all the same [level]…it’s my job to make sure that we all get up to speed to what to what they should be learning,” he said.

Although Del Pizzo is unsure, his father truly thinks that his son has a career in education. He also thinks that being an alumnus will help teaching at Malvern specifically.

“There are problems you have to deal with every day, because you know, kids,” he said. “But he’s gone to school here for seven years so he kind of knows the drill.”

Outside of Malvern, Del Pizzo is attending graduate school at Saint Joseph’s University trying to further his education. “I really enjoy continuous learning and it has really shaped me to realize that I would like to be a part of this educational process,” he said.  

Tony has been fascinated with the of modern leadership which is another reason he decided on additional education. “I’m in grad school for organizational development and leadership. Mainly because I’m really fascinated with different leadership styles,” he said.

I definitely think to be a teacher means to be a leader, and that definitely correlates to what I’m doing now.

Tony thinks that Malvern lives up to its name of “preparatory” school. He found that the curriculum at both Saint Joseph’s and Duquesne University, his four-year college, were not difficult for him.

“From what I can say Malvern fully prepared me for college,” he said. “When I got to college I found [it] to be pretty easy, and that wasn’t the case for a lot of my friends. “I don’t find [graduate school] really challenging either.”

Del Pizzo attributes his ease in school to the values Malvern centers itself around.

“The sort of the core foundation that Malvern has really helped me think the foundation that I had here helped me to know how to study, to write, and how to succeed in school,” he said.

One of the biggest changes Del Pizzo has noticed about Malvern is that changes to campus.

“The the amount of growth that I’ve seen since I was here in sixth grade is tremendous. The Duffy Art Center wasn’t here when I started in here and I think the O’Neill Center was just freshly built, and now a new building for social impact,” Del Pizzo said. “So just in that amount of time Malvern has continued to grow as a leader in education and as a college preparatory school.”

Del Pizzo has also noticed the way Malvern readies its students has been changed to make more students adaptive and prepared for future jobs. “Being innovative and creative is on of the biggest differences I’ve noticed here,” he said.

One of the things Del Pizzo didn’t expect when he returned to Malvern is what it would be like returning as a teacher instead of a student. “It’s really interesting to see the other side of it…being a student and then coming and being a teacher, you really see what the teachers go through, how hard they work to make sure that we get the best education that we can get,” he said.

Between his musicianship, his career goals, and his history with Malvern, Del Pizzo hopes to have a great new experience at his old alma mater. His father thinks that his talent with music will make him an even better co-worker.

“Well, he’s an enormous talent, so I have a  lot of respect for him as a musician,” Emanuel said. “I think he knows that. And I think he respects me as a musician…so it’s a lot of fun actually [I think] it’s because we’re kind of on the same plane again, when it comes to understanding music and our approaches to music and that sort of thing.”

The only thing that Del Pizzo isn’t sure of is what the long term looks like for him. However he is optimistic.

“I can’t always say what the future is gonna be,” he said. “But, I would say that Malvern is going to be in it.”