Josh Arias has been a lifelong Eagle and now he will be remembered as one of the top students to come through Porter’s Chapel Academy.

Arias has been named the class of 2018’s STAR student at PCA.

“It was important to me because I worked really hard for it,” Arias said of winning the award. “I’ve been going here my whole life and I really appreciate everything the teachers do for me. It is something I have always worked really hard for.”

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.

Arias scored a 32 on the ACT and has a 4.24 GPA.

“He is an excellent student,” Cheryl Grant, who Arias selected as his STAR teacher, said. “He likes to be challenged first of all. There is nothing that you can ask him to do that he doesn’t give his best on. He seeks knowledge. He doesn’t just let it wash over him like some people do.”

Arias and Grant have gotten to know each other well over the years as she has taught him English the last three years and also in speech, and despite admitting that her class is challenging, Arias said she is his favorite teacher.

“She has a really challenging curriculum for us and even though everybody knows it is hard, they know it is the right thing and she is challenging us because she wants to prepare us for college and life. I feel like I have gotten a lot out of her classes,” Arias said.

This is the second time Grant has been chosen as STAR teacher with the last time coming in 2014.

“It is validation of what you believe in, what you do and what you have dedicated your life to,” she said. “It is very important to me that the students realize that what we do is significant not just immediately for a grade, but it will benefit them later on. So, to have someone give you an honor like that lets you know they understand that is what it is all about.”

Arias is the president of the Honor Society, senior class and student council. He is also a member of Key Club and 4H and competes on the football, basketball and track teams.

He plans to attend Mississippi State next year to study political science with the goal of attending law school after undergrad.