JUPITER CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, JANUARY 11, 2024 – Only three days into the new school year the high school Math Club has already started the semester strong.
Tuesday January 9 was the first day of the Spring Semester and members of the Math Club faithfully arrived in Mrs. Weston’s room for the lunch period. Although students had yet to start their math assignments for the year, the love of math is evident among the four founding members of the club: juniors Jaden Kostura and Brennan Gilday and seniors Justin Bench and Chase Mitchell.
Founded at the beginning of the school year by Jaden and Brennan specifically, the Math Club serves as an alternative option to the National Honors Society’s after-school tutoring center, which may not be convenient for student athletes. According to Chase Mitchell, Jaden and Brennan spotted a trend amongst the frequently asked questions in the Tutoring Center and realized the majority were math related.
“They decided that ‘we know math, we know people who know math, and we know people who need help in math,’ so they made a math dedicated club at lunch,” Chase said during our interview. “That’s essentially how we started: we saw that we had a need and Jaden and Brennan stepped up to meet that need.”
Alongside the club member’s dedication to a strong start to the year, it is evident they care deeply about what they do for their peers. In our interview, Chase admitted that “It’s a good feeling being able to help people that need help and make sure that people who are struggling don’t have to struggle as much,” Chase shared. He also admitted that his life goal is to “help wherever [he] can,” demonstrating the commitment the club’s members have for helping others succeed in math.
At first glance, the club may appear small, but Chase told me that “…the people who have come definitely seem to get a lot out of it.” The four peer tutors offer help with homework or studying for an upcoming test or quiz. According to Chase, they “have gotten feedback of better grades after attending the club,” which is unsurprising. All the tutors are taking either AP Calculus AB or BC, so they have experienced a majority of the math classes offered at JCS and are therefore very capable of offering assistance. Since its creation at the start of the school year, a fifth tutor has joined the original four. Sterling Lee, a junior and AP Calc student, also helps to bring clarity to the more challenging math problems.
Because the club is still in its first year of existence, trial and error are naturally expected, as some kinks remain and need to be worked out of the system. When asked what he hopes the club will do next year, Chase replied that he feels the club should try getting the word “out there” more via the newsletter, social media and word of mouth. He said the club’s size reflects their problem, which is a lack of peers seeking tutoring, and not a lack of tutors.
This problem is easily solved, however. If you or your friends find yourselves struggling to figure out your math homework and can’t make it to the Tutoring Center or Guided Practice outside of school, stop by Room 205 during lunch on Tuesdays to receive help. Jaden and Chase have both worked with me on my math problems and I know that each of the tutors has a wealth of love and knowledge for math.
In addition to offering help with math, the tutors are artistically talented and designed the decor for Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Weston’s doors this past holiday season. Both doors featured math “trees,” one was a play on the phrase “Don’t Christmas tree your scantron” while the other was a literal factor tree against the backdrop of other mathematical equations.
On top of doorway decorating, members of the Math Club made an appearance at the NHS hosted Trunk or Treat at the end of October, decorating Chase’s trunk to reflect the goals of the club.
While most people may wonder how to decorate a trunk themed around math, the Math Club pulled it off. Though one of the more academically inclined of the clubs represented, it was refreshing watching high school juniors and seniors reward the efforts of elementary students decked out in fun costumes.
“It [was] a welcoming example of what the math club is supposed to be,” Chase said regarding his trunk’s decorations. “One of our things was answering math problems to get candy. Working through the problem and getting help when you need it is very much indicative of what our club is about.”
As someone who has visited and received help from the math club on numerous occasions, I believe that Chase’s statement is accurate regarding the mission of the club. The tutors are friendly and offer a relaxed environment to tackle stressful problems over lunch. I highly recommend stopping by on Tuesday to see what it’s all about.
