History and Accomplishments

In 2014, the Sylvester family was inspired to found the X Academy after their son, Andrew, attended Epsilon Camp, a 2-week math camp for elementary students. They met Dr. Paul Zeitz, chair of the math department at University of San Francisco, who taught a parent workshop on math circles, a concept imported from Eastern Europe to Berkeley in the 1990s. Math circles are abundant in the Bay Area, but none existed in Santa Cruz County. The Sylvester’s rallied other parents to spearhead the creation of X Academy, and a few short months later, 45 eager students were attending Santa Cruz County’s first math circle at Louden Nelson Center in downtown Santa Cruz, where Dr. Zeitz served as one of the first instructors.

Since the 2014 launch, the X Academy has organized 78 weekly math sessions for 260 students in grades 5 through 10 from 62 different schools in Santa Cruz and Monterey County. Thirty-eight percent of students were female and thirty-three percent were from traditionally underrepresented communities of color.

In 2016, a 1-day Julia Robinson Math Festival at Cabrillo College campus was incorporated into the beginning of each season’s Math Circle. In 4 years, 340 students in grades 3 through 8 have attended. Cabrillo College and CSU Monterey Bay math faculty and university-level math students lead the experience and mentor younger mathematicians throughout the event.

In 2016, we partnered with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) to recruit Gifted and Talented Education students to the Festival and Math Circle. That year, scholarships were provided for 15 students from 3 PVUSD middle schools. We also partnered with the County Office of Education to recruit student participants from the County Math Contest, greatly increasing enrollment in the Math Circle from across the county.

Eight Math Circle students were selected for Math Path, a summer math camp for 100 of the top middle school students nationally who spend four weeks exploring college level mathematics.

When the pandemic temporarily shuttered the Math Circle, the X Academy board decided to sponsor a robotics team to compete in the MATE-ROV competition. In January 2021, with mentoring from 3 tech professionals, 10 high school students from 4 schools designed, built and tested an ROV in the Sylvester’s driveway and backyard. The team went on to place 7th in the World Competition (telepresence division), a stellar accomplishment considering this was the inaugural year for X Academy’s robotics program.

In 2023, the X Academy team expanded to 22 students from 8 schools throughout the county with 10 volunteer mentors. Student and parent interest in the program necessitated the rental of a new X Academy Maker Space in Harvey West industrial park. The X Academy is providing access to an opportunity that is abundant in Silicon Valley but solely provided by X Academy for Santa Cruz County-area high school students. The team qualified for the World Championship and traveled to Longmont CO where they ranked 5th out of 30 high school teams across the globe.

In 2024, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education asked the X Academy to expand its program to involve more students across the whole county. We taught 52 students on Saturdays at Sequoia High School and on Sundays, at the X Academy Maker Space in Santa Cruz. Twenty nine students went on to compete in the Ranger and Navigator divisions at the 2024 Monterey Regional MATE ROV competition. The Navigators came in 2nd place while the Rangers placed 3rd, receiving an invitation to compete at the World Championships in June in Kingsport, TN.

Our Programs

The X Academy hosts 4 main programs:

Santa Cruz Math Circle: The Santa Cruz Math Circle is a weekly math meeting for students in grades 5th through 12th who love math. Held at Cabrillo College in mid-county, students meet with mathematicians, scientists and engineers in an informal setting to work on interesting problems or topics in mathematics. The instructors are role models who use math everyday and many have PhDs in math. It engages bright students beyond traditional classroom math, feeding their love of learning math and challenging them to grow their capabilities. We offer 8 sessions in the Fall and 6-8 sessions in the Spring.

Julia Robinson Math Festival (JRMF): The JRMF is a national organization that provides high-quality, engaging materials that foster problem-solving and critical thinking for all levels in a 1-day festival atmosphere at Cabrillo College where students choose whatever activity interests them most. JRMF trains parent or teacher volunteers as table guides. The activities are designed to engage a student at every level of proficiency. The Festival is widely publicized as a strategy for recruitment to the Math Circle.

Math Competitions: The X Academy provides access to international, national and regional competitions where students can challenge themselves, gain experience and bolster college admission applications with their scores. X Academy is a local host for Math Kangaroo, an international competition for students grades 3 through 12; the Bay Area Math Olympiad (BAMO), held annually for middle and high school students, which is a 4-hour exam with 5 essay-proof problems, and the American Math Competition (AMC) a national competition of the American Mathematical Association, held in November for high school students. Only 2 schools in the county offer the AMC exam while the X Academy opens up this opportunity to all students at any school. We have had 30 students from 12 schools across the county including PVUSD schools participate in the AMC competition. Typically, the AMC is only administered at schools with affluent white/asian students and is used by top STEM universities (MIT, Carnegie Mellon) as part of the admissions process.

Robotics: Our newest program, the X Academy is sponsoring a high school team to compete in the annual MATE-ROV competition. We pilot tested the program in 2021 with 10 students from 4 schools and in 2023 entered into a partnership with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education to provide access to robotics education across the county.