Workshop on NE aims to relieve math fears

By Natayla Engelsen/reporter

Using her own experiences, an academic advisor helped students who attended a workshop to reduce math anxiety Oct. 11 on NE Campus.

As a student, Carolina Saleh said she struggled with math her entire school career, so she made it her mission to help relieve others of that stress. Her journey of a shift in her learning process began when she finally decided to conquer her fear and spend her time practicing math religiously.

“I hated math, and when you hate something, you’re not going to put all your effort into it,” she said.

“Math anxiety is an emotional reaction based on a bad experience,” she said in her PowerPoint.

One must overcome negative self-talk and always read the math text, Saleh said. Memorizing a problem won’t help students solve other problems, but learning why and how to use a formula will, she said.

“I don’t feel different anymore,” said Ahmed Fayas, a NE industrial engineering major. “There’s ways to inspire yourself, but really, you just got to do it.”

Saleh compared learning math to learning a foreign language.

“Don’t use it, you lose it,” one of the 50 audience members quickly responded.

Math instructional associate Tai Vo also offered advice to the students.

“Don’t give up unless you’re sure there’s nothing else for you to do,” he said.

Vo is only one of the instructional associates who work in the NE math lab, which is open 80 hours a week starting at 7 a.m. Monday-Saturday.

“Our mission is to assist you,” he said. “As long as you have patience and determination, you will succeed.”

Saleh said research is a positive key to success.

“Replacing a negative, though, with a positive is a change in attitude,” Saleh said.

Student Huong Tran also benefited from the session.

“The presentation was great,” he said. “The information helped me to overcome my math fear.”

Donny Poteet summed up the seminar: “It was really excellent,” he said.