After completing his math degree in 1992, Phil continued slogging along as a mortgage lender until one day in December of 1995 when his wife interrupted his whining about work by saying, “Why don’t you just quit and go teach?”
Taking her advice he quit the next day, enrolled in UMKC’s accelerated teaching program and never looked back. After three years as the high school math department in Mound City, Missouri, a quintessential small town straight out of a John Mellencamp song, Phil returned to Kansas City in 2001 and began teaching at Oak Park High School.
He currently teaches Algebra, AP Calculus and AP Statistics, coaches boys tennis and helps with Cross Country. He was fortunate to teach in the building where all three of his kids graduated, and many days still can’t believe he gets paid to have this much fun and work with so many fantastic students and colleagues.
Phillip Gegen