Mathematics, Education and Access to Power

Math 201 Spring 2007: Mathematics, Education & Access to Power

Students

History

Future

Students Accepted into Math 201 for Spring 2007

Michael Carillo	Math is a subject I truly enjoy, as a student and a tutor. Coming from LAUSD and having worked with both AVID and Upward Bound as a math tutor, I have seen that by far the biggest problem students have in learning mathematics is the fear of being labeled “stupid” by their peers and teachers when not understanding a concept. With Math 201, based on its idea of trying to understand the perspective of both teachers and students, I want to learn how to eradicate this fear and others in students.

Matthew Chinea	I am a senior Kinesiology major at Occidental College. In the summer before my first fall term at Occidental, I attended Oxy’s Multicultural Summer Institute where I studied the importance of diversity, justice and equality with other members of the Oxy class of ‘07. I work at Oxy’s Upward Bound program, the oldest Upward Bound program in the nation, where I tutor, mentor and advise low-income, first-generation, college-bound high school students from the local Los Angeles area. I am also a founding member and Contributing editor of The Ceiling, Oxy’s news magazine focusing on issues of racial, gender and economic discrimination as they relate to the Oxy community. I was also a Senior Interviewer for the Admissions office and have experience and knowledge of college application process. I am a product of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and know many of its problems and hope my experiences will allow me to better serve the students at Franklin High School. I see social inequalities as one of the most pressing issues in this country and see education as part of the solution. I am really hopeful that this course will better prepare me for my future in education.

Tomas Cometto	I am a mathematics student with a passion for teaching and tutoring. I have worked for several programs as a mathematics tutor such as Gear Up and Upward Bound and I have done some classroom observations. I am interested in this class because I want to be a high school math teacher, and this class gives me the opportunity to work with a math teacher. In my tutoring experience, I have seen that many students fail because they lack the confidence they need to succeed; I hope to give the students at Franklin that confidence.

Aviva Kaufman	My name is Aviva Kaufman. I am a freshman, and I am from Toronto, Canada. Although I am not a math major, I continue to take math classes, because I find math to be extremely interesting. Math classes offer something very unique, that can't be found in other classes. I believe that everyone should have access to a good math education, and hopefully classes such as math201 will help more people to see the importance of this. Having been taught math in a very unique way, I am excited to learn other ways to teach math. As well, I am very excited to, for the first time, be on the other side of the learning process, while trying to help others see what I see in math. Math can open many doors, and I hope that this class can help to provide opportunities for students who struggle in math.

Margot Seigle	My name is Margot Seigle and I am a sophomore Urban and Environmental Policy major. I went to the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) for high school and since then have focused my studies on work in the non-profit world. I am taking this class because I think that there is a large connection between social justice and math literacy. Coming from a high school that highly valued math, I am interested to see what it is like in standard public schools that don't specifically focus on just those subjects. Where as 100% of the students from my school went to college, far fewer students at Franklin go on to college. I'm interested to see if there is any correlation with the level of math at IMSA, and if this ability therefore gave them "access to power."

Selbie Salonga	My name is Selbie Salonga. I’m currently a sophomore, I plan to major in Critical Theory and Social Justice, and I minor in Education. I have a passion for fighting and living out equality amongst all peoples. For this reason, I was immediately attracted to this course because it situated the seemingly innocent subject of math into not-so-innocent subjects of access to power by people of color, social justice, and racial systematic discrimination. As a student planning to devote my life to tearing down systems of oppression, I see this class as another and unique way for me to work for equality. In other words, I really just want to help Franklin High students realize the potential that is in them, potential that has been systematically denied to them for unjust reasons.

Jamie Thalman	I am a freshman at Oxy, from Cleveland, Ohio. Currently undecided, I am leaning toward majoring in Economics with an international emphasis (I still do not know what that really means). I first became aware of Math 201: Mathematics, Education and Access to Power when Eric Sundberg approached me after a calculus examination I took last semester. He briefly explained the mission of the class and encouraged me to enroll. Since then, I have been excited to see where 201 takes me in the way of community enrichment beyond the immediate campus of Oxy. I’ve spent the past five summers working at a space camp, teaching space campers (ages 8-13) many facets of space exploration. In an effort not to lose touch with teaching, I hope to contribute to Franklin High School’s math program.

Anne Wilson	Anna Wilson is a member of the Class of 2010 from Chicago, IL. Having tutored algebra and geometry in high school for three years, this course is of particular interest to her because of her small, private high school's unconventional mathematics program. "Hopefully," she says, "this class will help me discover new methods of teaching others and also help me learn new ways to prepare for my own math classes." Anna is planning on majoring in Chemistry.

Last Updated: Sunday, December 30, 2007