The Mississippi Economic Council M.B. Swayze Foundation announced this month that Jackson Academy seniors Noah Pressler and Gautam Ray are STAR Students for the 2023-24 school year. The foundation selects STAR Students based on academic excellence, factoring in standardized test scores and scholastic averages.
Senior Vice President of Foundations Vickie Powell said each STAR Student is asked to designate a STAR Teacher who has significantly contributed to the student’s academic achievement. The JA seniors selected teachers Jacob Sullivan and Richard West as STAR Teachers.
Recipients will meet with 550 STAR Students and STAR Teachers on April 4 at the Clyde Muse Center in Pearl, Mississippi, to accept their recognition during MEC’s STAR Education Celebration.
The top 20 STAR Students –The ALL-STAR Scholars – will receive scholarships. Their STAR Teachers will receive awards from the Kelly Gene Cook, Sr. Charitable Foundation. The highlight of the Education Celebration will be the naming of the Mississippi ALL-STAR Scholar for the 2023 – 2024 school year, winner of a $24,000 Cook Foundation Scholarship.
Noah Pressler
Noah Pressler, from Jackson, puts many hours into theatre and band performances, including being a concert band soloist. He provides instrumentals on tenor and alto saxophone, bass clarinet, piano, and bass guitar for theatre, chapel, and band shows. Noah also is an Eagle Scout, an AP Scholar with Distinction, a member of the Cum Laude Society, and many academic honoraries and clubs. He earned first place in pre-calculus at the 2023 Mu Alpha Theta Tournament. Noah serves as the Co-Captain of the Ultimate Frisbee Club.
Noah named Richard West as his most influential teacher. “I picked Coach West because although he is an amazing teacher, he is an even better man. Coach West is the type of person to offer advice in any situation that you might face, regardless of how you were out into that situation,” Noah explained. “He is a devout Christian who never wavers in the face of doubt, which I also find very admirable. He manages to have such a personal impact on the lives of those around him, all while also managing to teach his students a very complex topic. I took Coach West’s classes for two years, and have eaten lunch with him for the past two years, even after I had finished both of his classes, because he is just such a fun, entertaining, and wise man.”
Richard West is a STAR veteran who has received STAR Teacher recognition for numerous years at JA, Clinton High School, and Bailey Magnet School. He was named an All-STAR teacher in honor of the number of times a student has selected him as their most influential teacher. Since teaching at JA, he has been a finalist for the Clarion-Ledger Best Teacher award twice. Also at JA, West’s fellow faculty members named him Upper School Teacher of the Year in 2021.
Gautam Ray
In addition to tutoring at JA and conducting summer research in biochemistry, Brandon resident Gautam Ray is a Quiz Bowl enthusiast and serves as team captain. An inductee of the Cum Laude Society, Gautam has served as the historian for the student body, a Student Council officer, and a JA Student Ambassador. At JA and outside of JA, he has participated in competitions in science and math. This year, Gautam was the National Chemistry Olympiad Finalist with the highest score on the national exam in the Mississippi region. He was an International Science and Engineering Fair Finalist, qualifying for the Best in Fair Award at Region II Mississippi Science and Engineering Fair.
Gautam selected Jacob Sullivan for his STAR teacher. “Mr. Sullivan served as my AP Biology Teacher during my sophomore year. I selected him to serve as my STAR Teacher due to his influence on my prospective career choice and aid within my greater high school life,” said Gautam. “Prior to taking his class, I did not know where my career ambitions laid. However, his visual method of teaching and captivating experimentation convinced me that my interest lied within the biochemical fields. From his lectures on quorum sensing to the pGLO lab, Mr. Sullivan and his class initiated my interest in biology, motivating me to research the field further later in high school. Likewise, his support when sponsoring JA’s Biology Service Club, the organization I co-founded with my close friend Caroline, has further sparked my interest in the field and connected me to a greater world of STEM that ultimately has guided me as I’ve progressed from a quiet sophomore, with no knowledge of his future goals, to a rising freshmen in college that hopes to become a biomedical researcher.
Jacob Sullivan’s favorite part of teaching is the satisfaction he gets when he sees a student grow as a person. Sullivan really enjoys seeing a student master challenging material after a period of hard work, learning each student’s personality, and being surprised by something different each day. He is working on an M.A.T. degree at Belhaven University, helping him hone pedagogy quantitative analysis of student progress and create more full assessments that test student understanding rather than recall.
Congratulations to JA’s STAR Students and Teachers!
