Adwita, an 8th-grade student, has been engaged in competitive math since first grade. She is passionate about exploring all branches of STEM to develop a well-rounded, interdisciplinary STEM identity, one that empowers her to strengthen her community and approach problem-solving from a diverse perspective.

Alongside her sister, Adwita is dedicated to introducing others to the world of mathematics and the excitement of competitive math. Through the mySTEM program, she has leveraged available resources to organize her own competitive math course. She hopes that her commitment to her Action Plan will inspire others to cultivate their STEM skills, particularly in competition math.

Q1: Describe your motivation for joining mySTEM.
I’ve always been interested in STEM. Science, math, technology, and all other factors. Sometimes at school, however, you aren’t able to focus on specifics in the STEM aspect. I knew that the mySTEM program would be a great opportunity to be surrounded with people and resources that would help me focus on different STEM concepts, advance my interest, and my ability in those fields. My dad showed this program, and I became immediately excited because I knew this would be a great chance for me to tackle an initiative in STEM and incorporate it into my future.

Q2: Describe your Action Plan in detail. How did you choose this particular topic in your project?
My sister and I have been doing competitive math ever since we were in first grade. We have a lot of experience and we’re still doing it now. Therefore, my mySTEM Action Plan is directed towards helping bring this to other people. Essentially, we’re going to do a tutoring program online for one hour every Sunday, for six weeks. We aim to teach students in grades four to six the basics of competitive math. This includes the four fundamental topics that show up in competition math. That’s number theory, algebra, geometry, and combinotaurics. We want to give them the experience of the basics of competition math so that they can build their skills.

Additionally, while there will be the one-hour classes on Sunday, we’re also going to assign students optional homework. We will have some time throughout the week to host ‘office hours’ where I will be offering help to people who want help with the homework or any math homework in general that they need help with.

If they really are interested, this gives them good groundwork to continue in the future and get even better at competition math, hoping others can love it as much as we do. We also hope that after this plan, we have a lot of students who are interested in taking even more classes with us and definitely want to continue their journey in competitive math.

Q3: In what ways has your mentor contributed to the development and successful completion of your plan? What are some ways that you feel like mentors and other scholars were able to help you succeed?
For starters, I probably never would have even taken this initiative if it wasn’t for mySTEM and their action plans. I’m very grateful for that. My mentor has done so much to help me with this action plan. She’s provided me with a lot of good ideas and she’s also posted my flyer and helped promote my lessons in order to gain more outreach. She will also attend most of the classes, helping things run smoothly and more efficiently. In conclusion, I’m very grateful for all of the help that I’m receiving.

Q4: What are your aspirations for the future of your project and what measurable impact have you already observed as a result of your efforts?
From a personal point of view, I think this project is going to teach me how to be a better leader and also a part of a team since it’s me and my sister working together. Thinking in terms of the people that we are tutoring, I think it’s really going to help them because as mentioned before, competitive math isn’t really something that people are introduced to on a regular basis. We want to give others that exposure and give them the opportunity, encouraging them that this is something that they can totally do and continue to do in the future.

If things go great, we hope to do these tutoring sessions again next year and even the year after that. We see a future where we can move from doing the basics of math and teach the intermediate or the advanced level.

Q5: Do you believe that your participation in the mySTEM program has facilitated the growth of your STEM identity?
Yes, I would definitely say this. They have so many resources and they help you take initiatives that you might not have taken if it was just you working by yourself. I’ve also met a lot of really great people. For example, there were two people that I was pretty good friends with in sixth grade, but then we separated schools, but they’re part of this program again. I was really happy to meet up with them again. I’ve also learned a lot more about STEM, and I feel like I have more resources that if I ever do want to do something else in STEM, I know the exact people that I need to ask to help me.