![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
On Saturday, September 22, four Upper School students including this reporter, Nitya Mani (10), Suzy Lou (10), and Lynda Tang (12) participated in the annual Math Prize for Girls competition at MIT.
Around 270 high school and middle school girls traveled from around the country and even from Canada to participate in the math contest, hosted by the Advantage Testing Foundation. Participants were invited to compete based on their performance on the AMC math contests. Nitya, Suzy, and Cindy all received honorable mention awards at the competition.
The Math Prize for Girls consists of 20 questions attempted over a period of two and a half hours. The competition aims to both challenge and encourage girls to pursue math. Contestants felt that the Math Prize for Girls was a motivating experience, as one of the few competitions exclusive to girls, and an event that they would encourage others to join.
“It’s a really nice experience for girls to know that you’re not the only one, despite how it might feel. You can meet with people who are like you and who like math,” Nitya said. “It’s not just about winning; it’s a really fun opportunity and you get to meet people you never would have met before who are very similar to you.”
In addition to the actual test, the competition also held a two hour ceremony with various performances and speakers that ended with awards for the contest. The keynote speaker was Dr. Esther Duflo, a professor of economics at MIT and renowned female economist. The program opened with performances by the MIT Logarhythms and the MIT Cheerleading Squad. Following were representatives from the Advantage Testing Foundation, who explained their organization and the goal behind the Math Prize for Girls. Then, the 2011 Math Prize Olympiad Medalists were honored on stage, followed by other speakers, including MIT professors and Dr. Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Wolfram Research and Mathematica.
Students thought the presentations were helpful in broadening their views of the use of math in various modern, real-life situations.
“The presentations show you how applied math can actually work in very different scenarios that are a bit of a reach from what you consider math to be,” Lynda said.
At the end of the ceremony, honorable mention awards were given, and the top ten performers were then called up on stage for the tiebreaker round, consisting of solving problems in as little time as possible in order to finalize the top ten rankings. Finally, the top ten participants were awarded trophies along with cash prizes ranging from $1000 to $25000.
Besides giving prizes, the competition also encourages girls to continue pursuing math and science by showing the wide range of possibilities of study and research.
“Usually when I do math, it’s just for fun, so I kind of had the perspective that math wasn’t that useful. The presentations were really inspirational because I saw how useful math actually is,” Suzy said.
Participants who received an honorable mention or top ten award were given a $500 scholarship to the USA or Canada MathCamp, a summer math program. In addition, these students are invited to compete in the Math Prize Olympiad, a proof based contest held later in the year.
