NC State Alum Jonathan Phillips Earns CALS Outstanding Teacher Award for 2020-2021

Jonathan Phillips has once again been recognized for his outstanding teaching.  He has been chosen as one of the 2020-2021 CALS Outstanding Teachers.  This award recognizes faculty who havNe demonstrated outstanding teaching. Jonathan is proud of the 21 years he invested in providing quality instruction to NC State students in the Undergraduate and Agricultural Institute program.  He teaches courses in microeconomics, agricultural finance, human resources, and personal finance.  In addition to teaching, Jonathan has provided academic advising, and advised university, college, and departmental student organizations.

“Student success is not just graduation.  It is when a student leaves our program with the skills needed to achieve their goals”, says Jonathan.  To accomplish this Jonathan designs courses to develop skills desired by employers and needed by entrepreneurs.  Just one example is his current work with Ag Carolina to insure students who complete his agricultural finance course are prepared to begin a lender-borrower relationship.

Jonathan was one of the first ARE faculty to offer online courses in 2004 paving the way for the current programs and certificates now offered.  He has received various grants for course improvement and development since that time with the most recent in December 2020.  Jonathan continues to evolve current offerings and create new courses to meet the current demands of the ARE department’s stakeholders.

Jonathan takes student engagement beyond the classroom.  He has advised many student organizations over the past 2 decades.  Most recently, his leadership grew the Delta Tau Alpha honor society from 7 members to 30 members.  Jonathan attributes the growth to changing DTA’s focus to professional development.

Barry Goodwin, former department head and William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor stated, “Jonathan is a pillar of our undergraduate and AGI teaching programs. He has been devoted to ARE’s teaching programs for many years and our programs would be lost without him.”