Mr. Phillips has been teaching at Trinity High School for 12 years; recently, he has started teaching a class at Washington and Jefferson College (W&J). He teaches Intro to Statistics to a variety of different students but mostly to accounting and business majors. Phillips started in this position at the end of August and will continue to instruct there in both the Fall and Spring semesters. He has his class twice a week on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Phillips has been at Trinity since 2013 when he decided to start teaching because he wanted to help people.
Phillips has been making an impact at Trinity and plans to continue that at W&J.
AP Calculus BC student Ben Peth speaks highly of Phillips and all he has learned from his teacher in and outside of the classroom: “I’ve learned how little interactions can make someone’s day and little stories can boost the morale of the group.”
Fellow math teacher Mr. Skroupa also speaks highly on Phillips and how he is hard-working, intelligent and dedicated.
Even with all of the great work Phillips gives Trinity, he continues to go above and beyond. He was recently a finalist for the Pennsylvania Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science. This is an award that honors teachers that go the extra mile for their students, particularly those teaching math and science classes.
Phillips decided to take on this task to explore new things: “I decided to start at W&J because I am always looking for more opportunities to better myself and I feel like this is a good option to explore something new.”
While educating at W&J may seem like it could be very different than Trinity, Phillips said that it wasn’t much different, it is just a little more in depth.
Skroupa thinks it is essential to be serious about teaching to instruct in a college environment: “Teaching at W&J requires being able to teach in a new environment and knowing your subject superbly well.”
Another important part of instructing at both W&J and Trinity is having time-management skills. Both Peth and Skroupa stressed on the significance of this: “good time management is a huge part of this job,” Peth stated.
So, as Phillips continues his teaching at Trinity while also starting his classes at W&J, wish him luck and continue to work hard in his class.
