Horace Mann, Riverdale, and MS 129 to Represent the Bronx in NYS Math Competition

On Saturday March 15, 2014 the best middle school math students from throughout the state will gather on the campus of Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, to do battle against each other in the 2014 NYS Mathcounts Competition.

Leading the Bronx contingent will be the teams from Horace Mann coached by Danielle Steinman, Riverdale Country School coached by Monika Le, and MS 129 coached by Assistant Principal Sharon Davis.

The Bronx contingent was selected at the Mathcounts in the Bronx Competition conducted by Bronx Chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers (www.BxNSPE.org) on February 11, 2014 at Lehman College.

The three teams (Michael Caosun, Benjamin Spector, Derrick Xiong, and Andrew Caosun from Horace Mann; Lucy Pan, Erxi Lu, Teji Vijaykumar, and Julian Burden from Riverdale Country School; and Shawon Paul, Jenab Diallo, Avana Francis, and Habiba Meem from MS 129) plus two additional individual students, Matthew Li from Horace Mann and Andy Reyes from MS 223 will be competing against top teams and individuals from all of New York State.

At the NYS competition, the four top competitors will advance to the National Mathcounts Championship on May 9, 2014 in Orlando, FL.

Although recent media headlines bemoan the poor performance of American students in the critical areas of math and science compared to their global competitors, these students provide hope. The Mathcounts program instills interest in mathematics among young students and provides enrichment programs to supplement standard math classes.

Deserving special mention is a Math enrichment program SPMPS - Summer Program in Mathematical Problem Solving. SPMPS is set up to provide math enrichment to deserving students from underserved public schools. Andy Reyes, one of the Bronx contingent advancing to the NYS competition, is an alumnus of SPMPS, which is free to the students who are accepted. See their website on how to help (http://www.artofproblemsolving.org/spmps/).

Congratulations to all the competitors at the Bronx competition and good luck to all those who will be competing at the NYS competition.