Jacob Slaughter was making a name for himself as a mathematician, an inventor and an athlete before he graduated from middle school.

Turns out that the young Hanover resident also has a way with words, too: The national Association for Women in Mathematics recently awarded Slaughter, now a Thetford Academy junior, the grand prize in its annual essay contest on the topic of “Biographies of Women in Mathematics.”

His essay, Running the Numbers, recounts how Rosa Orellana overcame resistance to her interest in math during her high school years to become a Dartmouth College professor and a leading researcher in the field of algebraic combinatorics, which uses such concepts as group theory and representational theory to solve abstract algebra problems. Along the way, Orellana became a mentor to young people in general, and to girls and women in particular, who pursue careers in math and science.

“When I interviewed her, I was a little hesitant about being a guy entering this contest, but she reminded me that it’s the Association for Women in Mathematics, not of women,” Slaughter said last week before heading off to a rowing practice. “If we want to have a world in the future where people don’t feel pressure to go into particular areas of study or careers because it’s always been a certain way, that’s a process that’s going to involve all genders.”

Slaughter, who has written essays and poetry published in the Valley News and elsewhere through the Young Writers Project, entered the contest at the suggestion of Dartmouth research instructor Vardayani Ratti, from whom he’s been taking a calculus class and who oversees the college math department’s own essay contest for aspiring mathematicians at Upper Valley schools and at the college.

“I recognized Prof. Orellana in a Dartmouth College photo when searching for a mathematician to interview, because I have seen her running for years on the road by my house,” Slaughter writes in the opening paragraph of his essay. “When I asked her about running, she laughed. A woman had stopped her recently on a run and said that Orellana had inspired her to start running. ‘You can be a role model even when you don’t think you are, just doing something you love,’ she mused.”

How many things does Jacob Slaughter love? At Thetford, he’s juggling science, Spanish, Latin and musical theater with Nordic skiing and running track and cross-country for the Panther varsities. During his final year at Cardigan Mountain School in Canaan and then during his sophomore year at Thetford, he earned two U.S. patents for developing a device that cleans snow from the bindings of cross-country ski boots, with the aim of helping skiers “who have less experience or limited mobility.” And three weeks ago, he started rowing.

“I wish I could tell you what I might study in college or do for a career,” Slaughter said. “I’m totally undecided. A lot of what high school and college is about is to try as many things as you can. I try to resist specialization. I enjoy studying so many things. Time management is an important piece.”

In the national essay contest, Richmond Middle School eighth-grader Sora Shirai earned an honorable mention among middle-schoolers for her essay about Boston-based researcher Kimiyo Yamamoto of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

In the Dartmouth math department’s own contest, a revised version of Slaughter’s Orellana essay placed second at the high school level, behind an essay by Hanover High student Sophie Usherwood. Meanwhile Hanover High students Iroha Shirai and Reilly Uiterwyck earned honorable mention. At the middle-school level, Sora Shirai’s essay tied for first place with Crossroads Academy student Saia Patel’s essay about Hanover High math teacher Subhadra Srinivasan. And in the college undergraduate competition, Dartmouth’s Christopher Cheng earned first prize for his essay, Using Doubt As Fuel: The Story of Dr. Min Su.

“The point of the contest is to highlight contemporary women and to challenge stereotypes and to break down the barriers that discourage women from pursuing careers in STEM fields,” Slaughter said. “When I went to the Dartmouth awards reception, it was interesting to be able to meet the other winners, to talk about their interests. There are some really great people out there who want to create a better future.”

To read Jacob Slaughter’s and Sora Shirai’s prize-winning essays, and to learn more about the AWM’s 2019 essay contest, visit sites.google.com/site/awmmath/programs/essay-contest.

Educator Excellence

The Vermont Principals Association recently named Doug Heavisides as career-center director of the year for 2018-2019, for his leadership of the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center in White River Junction.

Heavisides, a graduate of Hartford High School, will receive the award during the principals association’s Leadership Academy gathering at Killington Grand Hotel on July 31.

S.T.E.M. Stars

Along with Vermont championship trophies in girls basketball and boys basketball, Windsor High students in March added top prizes in science, technology, engineering and math to the school’s trophy case.

Led by seniors Brianna Diggs and Vincent Moeykens and junior Alexander Townsend, Windsor won the fourth annual Town History in 3D Printing contest at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, with a scale-model re-creation of Windsor’s Ascutney Mill Dam. The research, design work and modeling by Diggs, Moeykens and Townsend, and by junior Serene Martens and freshmen Jasmine Martens and Maurice Day, earned Windsor High a brand-new 3D printer.

Diggs, Moeykens and Townsend also paced Windsor to first place among Vermont teams and third place overall in the senior division of the Twin State Math League, behind Hanover High and Kimball Union Academy. Townsend placed second in the league’s individual standings, and will join Diggs, Moeykens and teammates Christina Gregory, Jacob Curtis, Ben Meagher, Elijah Collier and Ally Fowler at the regional math competition in Massachusetts later this spring.

Christina Gregory led the Windsor delegation during the Vermont STEM Fair at Norwich University, earning a special award for the best water project by a high school student, winning recognition as an outstanding junior and receiving a scholarship to work in the lab of the New Hampshire Academy of Science (NHAS). Her classmate Dan Dexter, meanwhile, was named exceptional high school student in math, physics and engineering.

Windsor’s Brooke McKeen was named an outstanding junior and earned an NHAS lab scholarship at the STEM fair, while Kristin Clark and Lylah Reynolds received NHAS scholarships.

Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering, in Hanover, is inviting Upper Valley devotees of engineering to the school’s annual open house and exposition on Friday evening from 5:30 to 8.

The event features laboratory tours and demonstrations of robots, a hybrid race car and medical devices. To learn more, visit engineering.dartmouth.edu.

Hartford Middle School sixth-grader Ethan Jeon edged out HMS seventh-grader Parrish Gelhar-Pacht for the top prize in the carbon-powered dragster competition, during the annual conference of the New Hampshire Technology Student Association in Bartlett, N.H.

Jeon also placed third in the problem-solving competition for middle-schoolers, right behind fellow HMS sixth-grader Connor Rice.

In high school competition, Hartford High’s Eric Jeon place third in the architectural design contest. Eric Jeon mentored the Hartford Middle Schoolers in preparing for the competition.

Collegiate Recognition

The Military Officer Association of America recently conferred one of its Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC) Awards on Springfield, Vt., resident Patrick Clancy. Clancy was cited for demonstrating “exceptional potential for military leadership” in the Air Force ROTC program at The Citadel in South Carolina.

Hanover resident Jack Pattison and Sunapee’s Carly Jefferson were inducted into the St. Lawrence University chapter of the mathematics honor society Pi Mu Epsilon.

David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304. Education news also can be sent to schoolnotes@vnews.com.

 

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