Eight years ago, as I prepared the first Math Matters newsletter, I was a first year student at the North Carolina School of Science and Math. I am currently a first year teacher at the Maine School of Science and Math, thankful for the intervening years of growth and adventure, mathematical and otherwise.
It was during my two years at NCSSM that I first fell in love with math, with the beauty, the clarity, and the mystery of seeing this particular way of describing the universe, while at the same time enjoying and benefiting from the social interaction of mathematics clubs and teams. Through four years of college--three at Rice University, in Houston, TX, and one in Hungary, with Budapest Semesters in Mathematics--I was blessed by teachers who continued to challenge me and reveal more of the depth and breadth of the mathematics now understood. I also continued working together with my peers, learning from them and gaining from each of our strengths. With this combined experience of the beauty of mathematics and the stimulus of working with others, I went to the University of Chicago to study for a Ph.D. in mathematics. In the first year of graduate study there, I learned more mathematics than I had ever known existed, and saw, more than anything else, just how little I would ever know of this vast field! At the same time, I learned to deal more effectively with the (sometimes) frustration of floundering with a new topic, in part by working together with others to both challenge and encourage one another.
In the second year, I began to specialize in an area of math called geometric group theory, which I enjoyed most because I found that it reflects what I find most amazing about mathematics, that is, the interrelatedness of various areas of mathematics. In this subject, (non-Euclidean) geometry is used to study algebraic structures called groups. These, in turn, are applied to understand symmetries, including things like tesselations of the plane, and the number of different wallpaper patterns. By the end of that second year, I was offered a position here at the Maine School of Science in Mathematics. I was also anxious to spend more time interacting with others and sharing with them the things that I believe to be most important, including the beauty of mathematics, and so I made my way to this snowy corner of the US.
Those many years of studying math included all sorts of mathematical activities, from competitions to individual projects to mathematics courses to summer study programs. Each of these experiences worked directly to broaden my view of the mathematical world. Each was also coupled with personal and social experiences which broadened my view of life.
This mix of social and intellectual endeavors began in earnest while I was a student at NCSSM. Seven years later, some of my fondest memories from those years are of working together with my hallmates on multivariable calculus assignments, imagining the planes of our beds and walls and dressers intersecting at points and lines in the middle of our dorm rooms. As an active participant in the math club, I had the opportunity to work together with other students to prepare practice sessions for local MathCounts teams. In addition to learning more about the mathematics involved and how to teach it, I had fun working with my peers and learning to both delegate responsibility and share in the work load.
While at Rice, I spent an increasing amount of my time working together with my peers, learning mathematics from one another. At the same time, we were forced to see each of our strengths and weaknesses objectively, and to learn to appreciate different approaches to learning. Early on, I teased a student who had a habit of reading other textbooks for our courses. Before too long, though, I was learning the value of consulting several texts for a given course, if only to gain a new perspective on the material.
During my junior year, I gained in many ways by spending a year in Budapest, Hungary, exploring the mathematical landscape of other lands. I was pleasantly surprised to observe a uniquely Hungarian style of mathematics, which reflected their own national heritage. While there, I had the opportunity to take math courses, especially in so-called discrete mathematics--things like graph theory and combinatorics, which were not offered at Rice. I also had the opportunity to study Hungarian language, to hear my landlady tell her tales of WWII and the recent changes in Hungary, and to spend long weekends exploring Eastern Europe, from Krakow to Prague.
Graduate school, an intensely academic experience, forced me to identify clearly my priorities and to make sacrifices to maintain my academic success. Not only did I learn an immense amount of mathematics during those two years; I also discovered, often by trial and error, more about my own priorities and values for my time. It was many of these thoughts which have led me, full circle, back to a specialized high school for science and math.
I am learning not only to DO math, but to communicate it effectively to others. And as I put to use those skills of teamwork and disciplined individual work, I now strive to give my own students the opportunity to grow personally and intellectually as they study mathematics. I hope that they have as much fun as I have had in the process!
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