Spotlight 4 Success
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Spotlight 4 Success
The Mentor's Path
What drives someone to leave a successful business career and dive into the challenging world of education? Dr. Karen Phillips, Assistant Principal at Houston County Schools, joins host Devin Pintozzi at the 2025 Gale Conference to share her remarkable journey of transformation and purpose.
Website: spotlight4success.com
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I am Devin Pintosi, your host. We are here in sunny Jekyll Island, georgia, in the 2025 Gale Conference. So excited to be here with our special guest, karen Phillips. Yes, karen Phillips joins us. She is the assistant principal at two schools within Houston County Schools Correct, all right. So, karen, tell us a bit about your journey. What brings you here to Gale?
Speaker 2:Well, I came to Gale because I am an assistant principal of discipline and coming to Gale lets you meet other people from other counties, from other parts of the state to see different ways of thinking about the same thing. When you get stuck in your little area and you don't talk to other people. You think you know what you know, but you don't realize there's more out there until you get out there and explore and research.
Speaker 1:That is so true. And so, when you got into education, what brought you in to say I want to be in the field of education?
Speaker 2:Well, I actually got my first degree in business Okay, and I went to work.
Speaker 2:My degree was in business management and I went to work in the business world as a manager. And I went to work in the business world as a manager and instead of working in that field, I felt like I wasn't really giving to my community what I had inside and I really wanted to be able to grow my community, to make a difference where I live, Because the world is so big that you only have the opportunity to really change where you're at. And I said I want to be that change agent. So I went back to school, got my degree in education, because back then they didn't have TAP, they didn't have other ways of venturing from one degree to another. I had to go back and get a whole other undergraduate degree and then I became a teacher so that I could impact my classroom. Because I always felt like if I could change a child's world, it would not only change their world but it changes their parents, it changes where their parents work, it changes you know who the kids interact with, so it changes the whole community.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is so wonderful and uh. So what brought you into? Uh, the school leadership?
Speaker 2:the same thing I really saw as a teacher.
Speaker 2:Where there were, there was need for mentors okay, and I, I am the assistant principal of discipline at my school, which I a lot of people would think you don't like that, but I love that because discipline is just another way when children act out, I should say, is another way for them to communicate. They're trying to tell you something and so if you can take that discipline and you can alter it, you can harness it, you can morph it into something positive and it helps that child, it helps that classroom, it helps that family and you never know sometimes that discipline is coming from a broken home and if you can do something to help that home life for that child, then you're helping all the children in the family, you're helping the parents, you're helping the grandparents. And that mentorship when I became first I became a teacher leader and I mentored teachers and then I became an assistant principal and then again I can mentor teachers but also other assistant principals, and so I find myself doing discipline, if you will, but I mentor all day long.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's wonderful. That's a great, great give back that lasts for generations. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success. I am Devin Pintosi, chief Operating Officer of American Book Company. We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, georgia. All of our materials are printed in USA are printed in USA. We have course books, e-books and online testing in grades K through 12 in mathematics, ela, science and social studies. These materials are all designed to help students achieve higher scores on their state-specific high-stakes assessments. We guarantee score improvement. You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abck12.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 1:That's so awesome.
Speaker 2:And that's what I wanted in life. I don't want to leave this earth have had a career or have earned a certain dollar amount. I want to leave. When I leave here, knowing that I made a difference. Yeah, that is so awesome.
Speaker 1:That is so awesome, karen, and can you tell us a bit about what you'd like to share? Oh, I understand you also have written some books, Is that right?
Speaker 2:I have, I've written two children's books, Well three. The third one is getting ready for publication right now.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:They're written under Dr Karen Phillips.
Speaker 2:All right, they're available at Barnes, noble and Amazon. The first one is called Look Up at the Moon, and it was my mother when I was a little girl. I come from a big family. I have all brothers, a big family. I have four sons. But when I was a little girl my mother would go out and look at the full moon and the shadow in the moon. She would say look like a rabbit. So I called it Look Up at the Moon.
Speaker 2:And what it is? It's a book about how children from around the world look up at the moon and when they look back they wonder does the moon see me, or the Eiffel Tower Me, or the Grand Canyon Me, or Christ the Redeemer? Because it shows how we're all so much alike. Oh, wow, there are differences among us but ultimately at the core we're all very much alike. And then the other book is a book for Christopher, my oldest son, and it talks about sports balls and it starts at a ping pong ball and goes down to a basketball and it's a measurement book. Being a teacher, I love teaching math, but it's a measurement book. But it also talks about sports and it's got adjectives and descriptions and all that and then in the end he's really looking for his football. K-u-g-a. He's really looking for a football.
Speaker 1:That's a good plug.
Speaker 2:And the really neat thing about it is my illustrator. I found her on Fiverr and she's a Ukrainian refugee in Poland, and so in June my brother is the US liaison to Poland. I got to go meet her. Oh wow, which is really cool.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. Wow, what a small world we have.
Speaker 2:So again, mentoring is helping people make the world a better place.
Speaker 3:Wow by adding to.
Speaker 2:You know, who knew that I would have impact on this young lady's life in Poland? Wow, so she'll have means to take care of herself.
Speaker 1:That is so amazing. So, Dr Karen Phillips, where can people find these children's books?
Speaker 2:Amazon and Barnes Noble. Well, there's lots of other little ones, but those are the two big ones.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is so awesome. It's great. Children's books are so engaging for the little ones and such a great thing to do.
Speaker 2:Yes, and Juliana's. Her illustrations are amazing, they're amazing, oh wonderful.
Speaker 1:And do you have anything you'd like to share with the Gale community at large during this conference?
Speaker 2:I would just say make sure that you come with an open heart and don't just come to have fun. I know this is a fun place to come, but come actually learning something and being able to take that back to your school to make a difference.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so awesome. Again, thank you for joining us. Dr Karen Phillips, Assistant Principal with Houston County Schools, it's great to see you today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate it. Y'all have a great day.