US Mathematics Students of the Trimester – Winter 2021

I am excited to announce the Upper School Mathematics Students of the Trimester – Winter 2021!

Each math faculty member was free to choose whichever student of theirs they thought best exemplified what they are looking for in a model mathematics student. The official description of the award is as follows:

“Awarded to students who exemplify the math department’s core values of competence, confidence, and perseverance while helping their peers realize the relevance and importance of an exceptional mathematical education both for its beauty and for its practical application.”

The following students have been recognized as the Upper School Mathematics Students of the Trimester for Winter 2021.

Please join me in congratulating these outstanding mathematics students!

Caroline Aufiero – Caroline Aufiero does amazing work in geometry class. Her performance when being evaluated has been exceptional. She has wonderful spatial recognition, a natural curiosity when presented with new material and exceptional class participation. Always willing to volunteer an answer to the most challenging questions when the class has gone quiet either in person or during a Zoom class, Caroline has been a wonderful class leader. She is respected by her peers and is always ready to explain how and why a problem can be solved. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor, Caroline!
Zah Ewen – Zah has done phenomenal work this year. She always goes the extra mile to ensure she is doing her best work. Additionally, she works very well with other students and sets a positive example as a leader in class. Congratulations, Zah, on this well-deserved award! 
Stella Gordon – Stella got off to a bit of a slow start to the school year, but after a couple of disappointing quizzes and tests she started meeting with me for extra help once a week. That extra help made all the difference in her work, and by the end of the winter term, her grade on the trimester assessment was one of the top scores in the class.
Aaron Hammer – Aaron conceived of and created a program to track and record a drivers actions and then play them back to direct the robot in autonomous mode. His understanding of the proper structuring of a C/C++ program was excellent. He also understands the process of reflection and revision by which programs are improved over time.
Mazin Hussein – Mazin has done a fantastic job at stepping up in every aspect of class. He jumps into discussions, helps drive us through hard problems by making key observations and corrections, and it’s clear to everyone that he has a genuine interest in math. He has fun and the class is made stronger by his contributions. His hard work has paid off with excellent scores on recent assignments.
Sydni Landman – Sydni continued to do a great job in calculus. She works carefully, asking great questions and doing the work necessary to understand this complex material. She also crated a great project modeling hanging a sign in the main entrance of the Cain Athletic Center – minimizing the amount of wire needed to hang the sign. She finished the term with outstanding work on the assessment.
Sako Lively – Sako is a creative thinker and inventive problem solver. He is able to find multiple avenues to solve a problem. Not only this, but he is so helpful to his classmates and I. He is always offering up technology advice, asking good clarifying questions, organizing his work so that it is easy to follow and read, and participating fully in discussions. He listens to understand and continues to push himself to grow. 
Alan Rodal – Alan has been an excellent math student. He is able to grasp concepts quickly and apply his knowledge to learn new material quickly. He has great insights into the material, and is always willing to share it with his peers in class.
Matt Thompson – Matt is an exemplary student in many ways. Not only does Matt regularly score at/near the top of the class on assessments, but he actively participates in class-wide discussions and small group work. Matt is also able to bring creativity to projects, as displayed in his profile of Easthampton from the perspective of a Texas man. For the reasons above and more I am happy to present Matt as my math student of the trimester. 
Abigail Touhey – Abigail has been stellar throughout Precalculus. She masters every concept and practices to near perfection. Her Desmos project was one of the best I have seen with great creativity and detail. 
Sotaro Wakabayashi – Sotaro has been an outstanding contributor to each class. He has helped him to raise the level of understanding by taking risks in his thinking and looking at the material in depth. Sotaro has also grown into one of the first students willing to volunteer an answer. 

Past students of the trimester can be found right here: Fall 2013, Winter 2014, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Winter 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2020