Tappan Zee High School

Twenty Tappan Zee High School students were inducted into the school chapter of Mu Alpha Theta, the national mathematics honor society, during a May 31 ceremony at Tappan Zee High School. The addition of new members, increased the chapter’s total membership to 58 students across grades 9-12.

In his welcome address, Mu Alpha Theta President Jake Laddis recalled his first introduction to the organization as a fifth-grade student in Paul Doctor’s class at Cottage Lane Elementary School. “Mr. Doctor brought us here to attend Mu Fest. After I beat him, fair and square, in ‘Cream the Cow,’ a simple math game, I got to reap the reward: I pied my favorite teacher in the face,” he told the audience of members, parents and administrators. “On the bus back, I looked at Mr. Doctor as he wiped the whipped cream out of his beard and thought, ‘Wow, math can actually be fun.”

“Fun” was the term every student speaker used to describe Mu Alpha Theta and the strong community advisors Jeanne Corcoran and Seth Resnikoff have created for students who enjoy math. That theme of playfulness was also evident in the remarks by alumnus Changseob Lim (‘15), who is currently majoring in computer science at Harvard University, and admitted to getting hooked on math in high school.

“Math is embedded so deeply in my understanding of the world, that I no longer ‘do’ math: I experience math,” said Changseob. “Your system of thought, of logic, is dependent on math, whether you like it or not. So you may stop ‘doing’ math, but you will always live math.”

Among the guests attending the induction ceremony was alumni Eli Rapoport (‘15), a statistics major at Cornell University. He credited his high school teachers and coursework for inspiring him to pursue mathematics in college. “The AP Calculus course with Ms. Premus and the AP Statistics class with Ms. Benecke (Corcoran) made me really appreciate the power of math.”

Following the induction of new members, officers for the 2018-19 school year were introduced.