Download the Press Release

 

Students in Los Angeles City College’s Math Club had the distinction of taking second place in the American Mathematics Association of Two Year College’s math competition for 2005-2006, in which 8,000 students competed from 168 colleges nationwide.    Two years ago LACC took first place in the competition and three years ago it placed third. All in all, LACC has ranked consistently in the top 20 for the past five years.

The LACC students who helped LACC achieve the current honor include Jeong Min Seong (tied for first), Abel Gonzalez (12th), Dongwook Kim (16th) and Jin Kang (20th).   These students placed in the top 40 students competing, notes LACC Math Club coach Anatoliy Nikolaychuk.  The competition results were announced recently and the team will be given a plaque at the annual Association’s conference in Cincinnatti this November.  A total of 27 LACC students entered the competition this year.

Last fall LACC Math Club students came in third place in the first round of this competition.  Current team members Jeong Min Seong  and Dongwook Kim were also members of the first-place award winning team of two years ago.   

The annual math competition is given in two rounds, the first in November, the second in March.  Each round consists of 20 questions involving logic, probability, geometry, trigonometry and pre-calculus functions.    Rankings are achieved by adding the final scores of the top five students from each college.  LACC’s top five students will receive certificates of recognition. 

LACC’s Math Club was started by Dr. Nikolaychuk six years ago to encourage advanced students to excel in their study of mathematics.    The Math Club meets every Friday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in Jefferson Hall 119 to work out solutions to difficult math problems on a group basis.  Dr. Nikolaychuk notes that his students have a lot of fun tackling the problems.  “They become obsessed in finding the solutions of puzzles and tricky problems, all of high level of difficulty, and they spend many more hours than our club meets because of their enthusiasm for the subject,” he said. 

And his students credit Dr. Nikolaychuk for inspiring them to do well in this competition.  “He makes math enjoyable,” noted one student.  As a result of their participation in the club, a number of students have changed their majors to mathematics and transferred to the UC system to continue their studies.

LACC Dean Lawrence Bradford who oversees the math discipline added that, “the fact that our students have done so well over the years can be directly attributed to the rigor, knowledge, and student involvement that the math department faculty display on a daily basis.  Clearly, the LACC’s Pi Shop where our students receive individual assistance in the form of tutoring and one-on-one faculty interaction is significant and has created a learning community in and of itself.”  

 

Student Profiles

(Amy) Jeong Min Seong, 33, joined the math team several years ago, and in 2003-2004 she placed third in the national math competition and received a $3,000 transfer scholarship.  Ms. Seong came to LACC in 2000 not speaking a word of English other than “hello.”   Initially she took classes at the college to learn English.   She had excelled in math and science in studies in her native Korea and soon began to enroll in LACC’s math program.   Math professor Rosa Blackiston encouraged her in her studies and suggested that she think about pursuing a career as a mathematics instructor.  For two years, Ms Seong served as a math tutor at LACC. Next winter Ms. Seong will begin studies for an advanced degree program in math at Cal State LA. 

 

Abel Gonzalez, 30, moved to California from Mexico at age 9. After attending Cheviot Hills High School, Mr. Gonzalez put off going to college because he needed to help out at home financially.  He took a string of jobs in manufacturing, as an LAX ramp agent, and in telecommunications.  Initially he enrolled at Santa Monica College, but he was impressed with LACC’s math faculty, and transferred to LACC where he became an A+ math student and a member of the award-winning math team.  He plans to transfer to a four-year school this fall and pursue a degree in chemical engineering.  Recently he was offered full scholarships to attend UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.  He was also accepted at UC Berkeley and that is his school of choice.

Dongwook Kim, 25, also hails from Korea.  He was a member of the top ranked LACC math club team in 2003-2004 and went to the convention in Orlando with the winning team to accept their plaque.   Mr. Kim  attended high school in upstate New York.  He moved to Los Angeles four years ago and began his general education classes at LACC.  He plans to attend a UC school this fall to study computer science.  

 

Jin Kang, 19, said he had originally planned to go to UC San Diego last year.  But because of financial hardship  he decided to attend LACC.   Initially he was disappointed that he wasn’t able to go to a four-year school out of high school, but after enrolling full-time at LACC he was so impressed with its top notch faculty, their knowledge and enthusiasm—that he now says that going to LACC was one of the best things he has ever done.  Born in Seoul, Korea, Mr. Kang came to the U.S. eight years ago, and started taking classes at LACC while still at Taft High School. During the past year, he’s taken a full complement of advanced math., physics, and chemistry classes at LACC and he plans to transfer to UC Irvine in the fall to pursue a major in mechanical engineering.

Although student  Gohar Vardapetyan, 33,  wasn’t in the top five LACC student contestants (she only competed in the most recent round of the competition) she did rank second for LACC in March’s competition.  Originally from Armenia, Ms. Vardapetyan already holds a degree in chemical engineering in that country.  She came to the U.S. seven years ago.  Today she is juggling multiple commitments, as a mother with two young sons, working as a tutor and mentor at LACC, and embarking on an advanced degree program in mathematics at Cal State LA.   I want to be a math. professor, she said.  She will be following in her parents’ footsteps, who are both teachers in Armenia. 

                                                                             ####

Rankings

Pasadena City College ranked first in this year’s competition and East LA College ranked third.   Other local school rankings: Santa Monica (14th), Glendale (22nd), College of the Canyons (26th), El Camino (27th), and Pierce (30th),  LA Valley (59th)                 

Top Ten

1. Pasadena City College                      

2. Los Angeles City College                 

3. East Los Angeles College                 

4. Green River CC (Washington)          

5. City College of San Francisco         

6. College of DuPage (Illinois)           

7. Bellevue CC (Washington)            

 8. Mt. San Antonio College                 

 9. De Anza College                            

10. William Rainey Harper C. (Ill)