Pictured right is Hart County High School STAR Student, Tate Phillips, and STAR Teacher, Mrs. Melissa Morgan-Phillips, left.
The Hart County Charter System is excited to announce that the local 2023 PAGE STAR Student is Hart County High School senior Tate Phillips. Tate selected Mrs. Melissa Morgan-Phillips, a Calculus teacher at Hart County High School, to be the STAR Teacher.
Tate, the son of Chapin and Brie Phillips, earned the STAR Student recognition for academic achievement and performance on the SAT.
“STAR Student is a huge accomplishment, and we are certainly proud of Tate,” Hart County High School Principal Kevin Gaines said. “Mrs. Morgan-Phillips is a tremendous teacher who goes out of her way to help her students each and every day.”
Tate, who plans to attend a four-year university after high school and study either Engineering or Finance, said it felt rewarding to earn the recognition.
“I ran for class president a couple of times and vice president, and then some other things in other clubs, and it was always second place … so it was just rewarding to have something finally go right,” Tate said.
Tate said he chose his Calculus teacher, Mrs. Morgan-Phillips, to be his STAR teacher because she helped him prepare the most for the SAT.
“And also, I just enjoy spending time in her class. She’s my favorite teacher I’ve ever had,” Tate said.
“Tate is a very good student,” Mrs. Morgan-Phillips said. “He’s exceptionally bright. He works hard … If there’s another way to do something, while I’m teaching, sometimes he’s in his mind trying to figure out that other way, and will ask me, ‘does this work?’”
The PAGE Student Teacher Achievement Recognition (STAR) program is sponsored, administered and promoted by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) and the PAGE Foundation. Since its creation, the STAR program has honored nearly 29,000 students and the teachers they have selected as the most influential to their academic achievement. High school seniors must have the highest score on a single test date on the SAT and be in the top 10 percent or top 10 students of their class based on grade point average to qualify for STAR nomination.
STAR begins each year in participating Georgia high schools when the STAR Student is named and chooses a STAR Teacher to share in this recognition. The students and their teachers are honored by their schools and receive special recognition in their communities from one of the more than 170 statewide civic organizations and businesses that serve as local sponsors of the STAR program. Students then compete for school system recognition as the top STAR Student, and those winners compete for region honors. Region winners contend for the honor of being named State PAGE STAR Student. STAR Teachers continue on with their STAR Students at every level of the program.
