Common Denominator by Jessica

Common Denominator by Jessica - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

Oh please don’t let anyone see my trembling hands and how nervous I am! It was the second day of RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) and I had been asked to give an impromptu speech to 1,500 top California leadership students on a topic I was passionate about. As the director informed me I would have only twenty minutes to prepare my speech, my mind went blank, my heart began to race and my eyes searched desperately for some small bit of inspiration.

Then it hit me, sitting in front of me was a girl wearing a ribbon in her hair with an oddly oversized black crewneck t-shirt with bold letters across her back that read “Math Champion 2015”. I loved the dichotomy she exemplified. At that moment, I knew exactly what I was going to talk about. It was a risky subject because of its lack of enlightenment, but it was a topic I was passionate about.

The first day I walked into my AP Calculus BC class, it became shockingly clear to me that calculus was a white male-dominated subject. Out of the thirty students that were enrolled, only four were females. I immediately felt out of place. That day, as I took my pink graphing calculator out of my backpack, I became ashamed of my “girliness” and began to regret ever pursuing my love of math. But as the year went on, and as I began to decode the patterns of infinite series and solve 12-petal rose curves in polar equations, I knew I deserved a spot in this class. It frightened me to think that if I would have listened to my doubts on the first day, I would have never been able to explore the intricacies and phenomena of calculus.

I knew that there were other girls like me who would feel the same way I did that first day of calculus. I wanted to instill in all girls, that a love of math is not something they should be ashamed of. So I began to tutor middle school girls in math. I found such extreme gratitude while I saw them immersed and hungry to learn more about the world of graphing and probability. On days when I would bring my pink calculator to tutoring sessions, I would watch their eyes light up with interest as I showed them new ways to solve problems faster and more efficiently. I am proud of my pink calculator. Not only because it represents my battle with the social stigma placed on girls pursuing higher levels of math, but it is also a source of inspiration to me. I want to continue tutoring girls in my area who are at the risk of giving up on such a thrilling and worthwhile field.

As soon as I became immersed in my passion for this topic, my fears were lifted and I was allowed to pursue more challenges with a new sense of confidence in myself. I hope to instill in each of my students I tutor a sense of pride and confidence in who we are. My dream is that they too carry this passion and confidence to other girls and calculus becomes blind to gender, or ethnicity and represents a diverse group of students, all pursuing a passion that holds only one common denominator, MATH! I had found in my pink calculator an army of girls who were ready to fight for their place in the world of mathematics