New Haven, Friday June 3, 2016: Hizami Anuar, Prastik Mohanraj and David Metrick are among the 45 Connecticut high school students who will be representing the Connecticut Association of Mathematics League (CSAML) at the 41st annual American Regions Mathematics League (ARML 2016), also known as "World Series of Mathematics Competitions" at Penn State University.
For Hizami and David, this is the second year in a row that they qualified for the ARML. Last year Hizami won High Team Scorer. For Prastik, this is his first. This trio were former teammates for the Raytheon National MathCounts competition held in Boston, Massachusetts April last year. Andrew Metrick, a Yale Professor, also David's dad, who was the coach for the MathCounts team, is also a coach for this trip.
The American Regions Mathematics League (ARML), is an annual, national high school mathematics team competition held simultaneously at four locations in the United States: the University of Iowa, Penn State, UNLV, and the newly added site at the University of Georgia. Past sites have included San Jose and at Duke University.
We wish Hizami, Prastik, David and the entire CSAML the best of luck! We would like to borrow a phrase from CSAML, " This is a fantastic opportunity to compete and share experiences with some of the country’s most outstanding mathematics students and also give favorable PUBLICITY FOR you, YOUR SCHOOL and your community."
Unfortunately, this year, Hizami & Prastik's school is not able to aid in the registration fees, allegedly because of the budget constraints, so the parents have to absorb the costs. The cost of the trip is $225 per person. According to CSAML, this fee has traditionally been absorbed by the individual’s school.
We're very disappointed with the school's decision not to finance the registration fees, especially coming from a school that strive the students to set up for success with advanced courses in math and science, a school that was created with a very special purpose: to educate and train the next generation of engineers, scientists, and leaders. (http://www.newhaven.edu/engineering/ESUMS/).
Shame on ESUMS. Last year, the school also wasn't willing to pay for the fee, but the math department head Mr. Hunter Smith vouched to use his own money first to help pay for the fee. Fortunately the New Haven Board of Education eventually settled the bill.
According to several staffs at this school that we spoke to, the New Haven School District allegedly uses a different approach to providing the funding to schools. It would cut funding to high performing schools and shifted the funds to the schools that are struggling in students academic performance. If this is true, then there is no point of publicizing or highlighting individual students performance, just the entire school's. But isn't a school is made up of each of its students accomplishments? The impressive results achieved by ESUMS that were eloquently presented by Nicki Perkins of the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (http://ctedreform.org/2016/05/esums/), would not have been possible without the sums of individual students performance.
While this holistic approach to funding is understandable, it is our opinion that each school should weigh distribution of their funds according to their mission statement. Mathematics is the very foundation of engineering and science, especially computing, technology and robotic.
While ARML is not as prestigious as AMC, AIME or USAMO, the chances of any students from public schools to qualify for ARML is extremely low. For example, Hizami's older brother, Fikri, who qualified for ARML a few years back, made a history for West Haven High School (WHHS) for being the first in the last 30 years to join ARML. The school did not hesitate to help pay for Fikri's ARML registration fee.
Most of the 45 students who make up the CSAML team are either from private schools or public schools in wealthier towns. There are a total of 450 high schools in Connecticut, 349 public and 131 private, for a total enrollment of about 567,000 students. Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate transferring Hizami and Aiman to a different public school, or even a private school if we can get financial aid there.
For us, the most important thing about math contest such as ARML is not about winning. In addition to sharpening mathematical skills, it is about also about forming frienship, networking and socializing. For example, even though Fikri is already in college now, he still keep in touch with his former ARML teammates from across the region.
About ARML:
ARML is a prestigious, national math tournament that is often called the "World Series of Mathematics Competitions". The American Regions Mathematics League's annual competition brings together the nation's finest students. Teams consist of 15 members, which usually represent a large geographic region (such as a state) or a large population center (such as a major city). Some math and science magnet schools, such as Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, VA, and the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology (AAST), NJ, also field teams. The competition is held on the first Saturday after Memorial Day. As of 2014, over 150 teams competed with around 2000 students.
ARML problems cover a wide variety of mathematical topics including algebra, geometry, number theory, combinatorics, probability, and inequalities. Calculus is not required to successfully complete any problem, but may facilitate solving the problem more quickly or efficiently. While part of the competition is short-answer based, there is a cooperative team round, and a proof-based power question (also completed as a team). ARML problems are harder than most high school mathematics competitions.
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