By Isabelle Zhu/ reporter
One thing typically holds back students from joining a math club: They’re afraid of math.
“Mostly, students are just scared of the problems, the quizzes and the formulas,” NE student Nik Loften said. “They also afraid of not being smart enough.”
But Kimberly Campbell, one of the sponsors of NE Campus’ Math Club Infinity, said there’s actually not a lot of math in the club.
“We have seminars that we put on every semester, topics of math, different jobs that use math,” she said. “We see what types of jobs are available in the STEM field — science, technology, engineering and math.”
The math club also helps students get to know the real world.
“They really want to build a community of those students who all enjoy math,” assistant professor Cathryn Miller said. “They also explore different careers of math and how these students are going to apply their knowledge in the real world.”
Last year, a speaker from the National Security Agency talked about how to become an employee of the NSA.
“We try to bring information about different career paths that involve math,” said club co-sponsor Maureen Feste. “That could be particularly helpful.”
Some students don’t know the math club also offers free one-on-one tutors to help them.
“I’d like to get help,” NE student Fortune Magara said. “I usually go to the Math Lab.”
Tutoring can also help club members build different skills and get benefits.
“We have a tutor program where our club members volunteer to tutor different math courses, and they get service learning hours,” Campbell said. “They get to learn by teaching the other students, and they also get the benefit of having that service-learning certificate to include on the application for four-year universities.”
Every student can go on the TCC website to look up the schedule to find an available tutor.
Students can also apply for scholarships.
“The Jim Bolen Math Competition is the main avenue of the club engaged in scholarships,” Campbell said.
Another approach to get the scholarships is through the national honor society chapter Mu Alpha Theta, which was recently created.
“There are scholarships available for Mu Alpha Theta members as well,” Campbell said.
