In 2008, during my 10th grade year, I founded a community service project called Math Counts at my school. This project was inspired by my personal experience with the nation-wide math competition MATHCOUNTS. I participated in this competition during my middle school years, and it was through MATHCOUNTS where I discovered my passion and love for math competitions.
At Math Counts, the community service project, Andover volunteers meet weekly for an hour and half with local, bright, middle-school students to work on math problems, specially picked out one by one from past math competitions and workbooks, hone their problem solving skills, and prepare them for the yearly MATHCOUNTS competition. The kids build up their self-confidence, socialize with other kids while discussing challenging math problems, and grow mentally and socially. The participants of Math Counts is a group of underprivileged, yet talented and bright kids part of the Lawrence Youth Development Organization, a “non-profit organization committed to developing the strengths of young people in Lawrence, MA that offers targeted after-school enrichment and academic programs to low-moderate income youth in the city.†Although quite recent, I believe that my project, Math Counts, has much potential and will continue to blossom even after my senior year.
This year, when I registered two teams of my group of kids in Math Counts for the MATHCOUNTS competition, I used my parents’ money to pay for the registration fee since the schools had no money for the math competitions, enabling the kids to participate. This competition was the first ever math competition for all of the kids. The grins and laughter during the event, and incessant questions about when the next competition was.
I also obtained a grant graciously funded by my school to buy food for a math competition on the campus of PA and provide cash prizes for nearby middle school kids, hosted and organized by me and with the problems written by me as well. For many kids, math competitions are rare because their schools do not have math clubs so this event was a great opportunity and experience as well as another math competition for those eager mathletes.
For all of these events, I thank my parents and my school for their support. I hope that now through this effort I can become a somewhat provider. The money that I hope to raise from this effort will go to my school, which I cannot possibly thank enough, the Youth Development Organization so that continued good can be done in the world, as well as mathcounts.org, designated to the Title III school registration fee so these schools do not have to pay a registration fee.
To buy the ebook, "Twenty Problem Solving Skills for MATHCOUNTS", please click the tab "My Files" and scroll down and click "Buy Now". An email will soon be sent to you containing the pdf file of the ebook.
Thank you.
~ Jane Chen
To order, click the link here:
http://www.mymathcounts.com/Twenty-Problem-Solving-Skills-PDF-Files.php
