Jon Bantugan could have been satisfied the first time he took the ACT, but he decided to buckle down and study, raising his score three more points.

That hard work paid off as Bantugan has been named Vicksburg High School’s STAR student for the class of 2018.

“It is an honor to be recognized for hard work that I put in. It is nice to be honored,” he said. “With the students we always talk about what our scores are and stuff like that so I wasn’t too surprised when we compared scores who would get it. I put in a lot of studying because my mom likes to push in education and work ethic. When people told me a 31 was enough, my mom told me to keep studying and I put in the work.”

The STAR student program is sponsored by the Mississippi Economic Council’s M.B. Swayze Foundation and recognizes the senior in each graduating class with the highest ACT.

To be eligible, students must score at least a 25 on the ACT and hold a cumulative average of 93 in core classes through the first semester of their senior year.

Bantugan scored a 34 and has a 4.77 GPA.

“Jon puts in the work and you can see that when he comes to class every day,” Regina O’Leary, who Bantugan chose as his STAR teacher, said. “He is well mannered and he respects the process of education. He doesn’t take it lightly. I know that he will do great things. When he did a presentation in class on a genetic disorder, it even helped me as a teacher to let me know I might need to step it up a little. He presented it in such a way it engaged not just the students in the class, but engaged me as well.”

O’Leary taught Bantugan in the dual-credit biology class during the fall semester of his senior year. He said he chose her as his STAR teacher because of how much she cares about her students.

“She really makes me respect the work teachers put in and also she’s really good at her job,” he said. “She is very, very helpful. I just respect her as a teacher so much because she really does care.”

This marks the second straight year and third time overall that O’Leary has been chosen STAR teacher.

“It is humbling,” O’Leary said. “Each time I go, it is a humbling experience because you get to see a room full of teachers who have put in the work. It is a great honor and it makes me want to do more.”

Bantugan is a member of the National Honor Society, the National Technical Honor Society, Key Club, Mu Alpha Theta and he plays on VHS’s tennis team.

He plans to attend Mississippi State University next year to study biology with the goal of attending medical school.