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BU summer program builds a community of young math stars
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| Glenn Stevens, a CAS professor of mathematics and statistics, has been nurturing the mathematical talents of high school students every summer since 1989, when he launched BU’s Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky |
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by Bari Walsh
Summer: long days at the beach, cold lemonade, thick novels -- and number theory. At least, that’s what summer means to Glenn Stevens (excepting possibly the beach, the lemonade, and the novels) and the high school students enrolled in BU’s Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists, known as PROMYS.
Stevens, a CAS professor of mathematics and statistics, and his colleagues in the department have run PROMYS (pronounced “promise”) every summer since 1989, inviting motivated math lovers to the BU campus for six weeks and immersing them in creative, rigorous explorations of number theory, advanced algebra and geometry, and other forms of mathematical analysis. Through lectures, group work, and seminars, these students, who already possess a prodigious amount of raw talent, gain a sophisticated understanding of mathematical concepts. They go far beyond where their high school math curricula generally take them.
“All too often,” Stevens says, “students experience mathematics as facts to be memorized and algorithms to be mastered. They practice routine drills and follow rigid sets of rules and techniques to get the right answers to problems they often find uninteresting. They rarely experience the delight of exploring new ideas within the realm of mathematics.” Nurturing that delight is what PROMYS is all about.
Stevens recalls the wonder of his own journey from rigid, right-or-wrong math to creative, “beautiful” math: it began during a summer high school program run by the late Professor Arnold Ross at Ohio State University. Two of Stevens’ mathematics colleagues at BU, Professors David Fried and Steve Rosenberg, also went through Ross’ program and now participate in PROMYS, which draws inspiration and methodology from its forerunner.
Many of the students who enroll in the program have never been challenged by math before; it has come so easily to them that boredom has set in, and a long struggle with a problem set is an unfamiliar sensation. The intensity of the learning experience at PROMYS can be almost frightening for some students.
“They’re very, very bright,” Stevens says. “They’re accustomed to the idea that they’re the brightest around. They’re very good at math, and many of them have developed an interest in it because they’re so good at it. We want to give them reasons for liking mathematics that are a little deeper than that.”
When first-time students arrive on campus, they become part of a community that includes returning students, counselors (college-aged former PROMYS students), mentors (professional mathematicians), and professors. Living in Warren Towers, in close proximity to older students and counselors, talented newcomers see, often for the first time, problems that they don’t understand and people who are more accomplished than they. It’s a situation that Stevens relishes: he knows he isn’t doing his job if he doesn’t challenge students beyond their comfort levels. And part of what makes PROMYS work is the web of resources that surrounds each student; fellow students, older students, and counselors are all available to help out on the tough problem sets Stevens assigns during each morning’s class.
Intimidating jolt
Lorelei Larking, an MIT sophomore and a four-year veteran of PROMYS, returned this summer as a counselor. She says she “wasn’t that into math” in high school. She was bored by the classes she took, until an encouraging teacher gave her extra problems and pushed her to apply to PROMYS. She remembers the initial jolt of that first summer. “It was sometimes intimidating at first. These are really smart kids. But it’s cool to be with people you fit in with, to sit around and crack stupid math jokes. It’s why I thought I’d enjoy going to MIT. It’s great to be with people who think along the same lines, who see the beauty in math -- not to sound too dorky.”
As a counselor, Larking is assigned several students to look after; she grades their problem sets and helps them find their stride. She describes herself as “not kind” when it comes to grading. “My favorite line is something my favorite counselor used to say: ‘Can you prove it?’”
Some students don’t take to the challenge with such enthusiasm, Stevens says, at least not right away. “Occasionally someone will come to me at the end of a summer and say, ‘Wow that was so much work, and it was so discouraging that I couldn’t solve all those problems; I don’t ever want to do this again.’ And that’s fine -- better they know now if they’d rather do something else. However, very often they go back to their schools and get back to a normal environment where the challenges and the intrigue in the material they’re studying is no longer there. There’s no mystery. And they get bored. And they remember. Then I’ll get a letter saying, ‘You know, Professor Stevens, actually, that was a wonderful experience, and I really want to come back again, and would you please let me come back this summer?’”
A remarkable number of students do return. And Stevens remains in touch with many former students, who often go on to careers in leading technology companies, on Wall Street, or at impressive academic institutions. Many of them also return to PROMYS as special mentors for the program. Henry Cohn, a researcher at the Microsoft Institute in Seattle, who came to PROMYS in high school, has returned to the BU campus every summer since 1990. This August, he was a research mentor for a number of PROMYS students. Jon Hanke and David Jao, PROMYS alumni from the early 1990s who went on to earn Ph.D.s in mathematics from Princeton and Harvard, respectively, were also mentors at this year’s session.
For Stevens, sometimes an encounter with a student he hasn’t kept in touch with is even more gratifying. “I actually have people come by my office and say, ‘Hello Professor Stevens, do you remember me? I’m now a faculty member at SUNY,’ for example. We know them from so long ago when they were so young, and we watch them grow up. It’s pretty amazing.”
28
August 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations