I am excited to announce a new award, the Upper School Mathematics Students of the Trimester!
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 Fall 2016.
Please join me in congratulating these outstanding mathematics students!
Andy Cao – Andy’s in depth thought, attention to detail and willingness to tackle the most difficult problems has made him an excellent Geometry student. He has shown a genuine interest in all of the material. His approach to class has helped push his classmates to excel along side of him.
Julia Cavanaugh – I chose Julia as my student of the trimester for her work inside and outside of the classroom. Outside of the classroom she is a dedicated student who does her very best every class to prepare herself for our upcoming lesson. During class she is always focused, eager to participate, and extremely willing to help her peers out with their own work. She is a is truly a model student!
Arvin Fieldman – Many students work hard to find success. Arvin finds success and then some. He is not satiated with even strong understanding of material. He must dominate each topic. His work ethic and abilities have shown through in his careful yet creative group work as well as his ridiculously high and consistent quiz and test scores. Bravo Arvin.
Kyle Grabowski – Kyle had a remarkable first trimester at Williston in geometry. His work is neat, thorough and incredibly accurate. He has a strong natural aptitude for mathematics and he thrives on the most demanding questions given both in class and on tests. On more than one occasion this fall, Kyle was the only student in two sections of geometry to get a challenge question correct. His inductive reasoning skills are impressive!
Simon Kim – Simon has great energy in class everyday. He is always prepared and willing to help those around him. He is quick to answer questions and come up to the board. Simon is an all around great student who raises the bar everyday.
Sarah Marion – Sarah is one of the most enthusiastic, most energetic students I have ever met. She is always the first student to ask a question; she stays after class to go over any concept she had difficulty with; and she is always prepared for class with her books and homework out in front of her almost as soon as she gets in the room. She has had a ton of success in Topics, mostly because of her diligent, conscientious approach to the material. It has been such a pleasure working with her this year!
Soma Mizobuchi – Soma’s work shows that he has set high standards for his academic performance. His Engineering Notebook is extremely complete and serves as a fine reference for his Engineering Labs and his code development. In writing programs, his code, and its logic, is always well thought-out and his program documentation is outstanding. Congratulations to Soma for a very impressive trimester!
Gabby Monaco – Gabby has taken on a great challenge this year moving into AP Statistics from TPS. She is one of the most persistent students and works very hard to understand difficult concepts. She is not discouraged by setbacks, but resolves to work harder on the next challenge. I am hopeful that, with this continued level of effort, she will make great progress this year and continue to model strong study habits and the kind of determination that leads to success and innovation in the field of statistics.
Gabby Record – Gabby did an outstanding job this fall in Calculus. She was always prepared and engaged in class. Her positive attitude along with interesting questions brought great energy to the class. I’m looking forward to her continued great work.
Andrew Spiegel – Andrew is a talented programmer who accepted the challenge of applying is already significant background and skill to a new context, game design. Rather than executing a safe or simple final project, Andrew pushed himself to attempt a highly challenging game that relies on random room generation. The result was an amazingly polished and enjoyable project that I hope he will continue to build upon!
Xavier Thibault – Xavier has been an extremely strong AP Calculus student. He has very good insights into the material which he is always willing to share with the class. He learns material very quickly and is able to apply his knowledge well. He helps keep our class moving forward as he is always willing to participate in our discussions.
Molly Zawacki – Molly has been a phenomenal addition to our Discrete math course. She has shown leadership in the class, whether it is stepping up to present a hard solution or explaining her thinking to her peers. I can count on Molly to go out on a “mathematical limb” and offer new ideas, even if she is not sure they are correct. Mathematically, she has developed into a beautiful proof writing; creating clear and easy to read explanations for her work. All in all, she has really embraced the core goals of the course; to explore, conjecture and prove.