According to the Wesleyan newsletter, “the Twelfth Annual Rockdale Mathematics Competition at Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology was attended by the Wesleyan Math Team on Saturday, September 24th. There were 53 schools and 576 students from across the state of Georgia participating in this event. This is the first time the Wesleyan Math Team has sent three complete teams. The varsity math team members consisted of Daniel Baisier, Sara Carmichael, Ethan Moon, and Angela Yang. There were two JV teams to represent Wesleyan. The JV-B members consisted of Lauren Oakes, Katie Tanner, Braden Thorne and Daniel Woods while the JV-A team consisted of Matthew Plunk, Cameron Potter, Dylan Sullenberger and Andy Yang. Daniel Baisier received the Top School Individual Award with the highest points and the JV-A team won 2nd place in the Independent School Division.”
In a recent interview with Math Team founder, Deborah Brown, she shared her enthusiasm for the growth of the team, her goals for the future and a brief history of how the Math Team came to be.
Q: How has the Math Team changed over the years?
A: “Well, when I first came to Wesleyan five years ago, there was not a math team at all. So I asked if we could do a math team and Mr. Young actually approved it and said that would be what I take on as my extracurricular. So my first job was trying to figure out who were the math people at the school, and that’s when Martin He came on the scene and he was very interested in math and Angela came along as well the following year… So it just kind of took off with both of them being the pioneers… its really grown a lot since then.”
Q: What was it like competing and placing in a competition that size?
A: “It was very exciting, we weren’t sure how we had placed at all after the competition, and actually the JV teams were randomly chosen. We did not choose the teams per se, they randomly chose numbers out of a cup and wherever the numbers fell that’s how the teams were formed… [but] the varsity team was set.”
Q: How do you think the future looks for the Wesleyan math team/what are some goals you would like to accomplish?
A: “We would like to attend more and more competitions. It’s very tough to coordinate all of that with all the different activities that students are involved in, [but] our goals are to just continue and improve and do more and more competitions.”
