Seven female Andover students sat in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology classroom among 269 other girls from across the country last Saturday, silently awaiting the 20-question math test that would stretch their minds for the next two-and-a-half hours.
Amy Chou ’16, Diana Ding ’16, Annie Zhu ’17, Jenny Huang ’16, Valerie Zhang ’17, Christine You ’16 and Elizabeth Tso ’18 all participated in the Math Prize for Girls, an invitation-only competition for girls from the U.S. and Canada in the eleventh grade or younger. They were selected based on their American Math Competition (AMC) 10 and AMC 12 scores.
Zhu and Zhang were the two highest-placing Andover students, placing fifth and receiving an honorable mention, respectively.
The students spent the day solving math problems, while networking with other high-school girls from around the country.
The goal of the competition since its inception in 2008 has been to address and take steps to resolve the well-documented issues of gender imbalance in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, according to the Math Prize for Girls’ website.
“It is true that, most times, when I go to math, after-school classes, that it is almost a boy’s class.… The first impression that you have, might [make you] feel discouraged. But, for the most part, it is fine — you just have to have your own faith and believe that you can also be good at it,” said Tso.
Statistically, there have been more boys at Andover in higher-level math courses as well as math club and math competitions. There has recently been an increasing trend of girls joining, however, said Khiem DoBa, Instructor in Mathematics and the faculty organizer of the trip.
As a way to encourage more girls to join math teams at school, as well as push them to enroll in advanced math courses, the faculty try to reflect a gender balance in their own ranks by including both male and female faculty members as coaches for the teams, according to DoBa.
“Everyone is a unique individual who contributes to the success of the team. As a mentor, I embrace and treasure each individual, whether a girl or boy, a [Junior or Senior], someone newly curious or someone who has had a lot of experience,” he continued.
Even so, DoBa does recognize the inequality and hopes to see further change in the future.
“We all know that math is not just for boys. Math is for everyone. It is for any individual who enjoys logical thinking and pursuing their curiosity and creativity,” said DoBa.
Three of the seven girls who attended the competition — Zhu, Zhang and Chou —have qualified for the Math Prize Olympiad, a test which will be offered at Andover in November. Each student who qualified for the Olympiad will take the test at their school.
“This year’s problems were actually very inspiring and very [forward] thinking. I like math, and taking part in a competition is a way to prove yourself and also stretch your abilities,” Zhu said.
“I mainly enjoyed having the opportunity to do really cool math problems. I also liked being able to meet a bunch of awesome people,” said Zhang in an email to The Phillipian.
