Math Circle
The Santa Cruz Math Circle is a weekly math meeting for students in grades 5th through 8th 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 6 - 8 sessions in the Fall and 6 - 8 sessions in the Spring.
Math Circles provide a space for students to develop friendships with their intellectual peers and develop confidence in their math identity.
Santa Cruz Math Circle Fall Session begins October 4 through November 22, 2025.
Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon
Cabrillo College, Building 300
Tuition is $175. Financial assistance is available.
Game Day: We invite 3rd and 4th grade students for games and puzzles (free) accompanied by parents at the same time and location as the Math Circle.
If you are interested in volunteering to teach, assist with teaching or helping with logistics, contact barbara@xacademy.org
Summer Math Camp
A day camp for math-loving students in grades 5th through 8th.
Students will enjoy daily math festivals, creative problem-solving workshops, mathematical art, a computer lab logic curriculum and lots of indoor and outdoor games!
The computer lab logic curriculum will involve solving logic puzzles, learning to encode and decode binary messages, and code decision-making programs. We'll start with simple logic games and build up step-by-step to analyzing artificial neural networks.
Our overall goal is to provide a space for students to develop friendships with their intellectual peers and develop confidence in their math identity.
Summer Math Camp - July 7 to 11, 2025
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Early morning drop off and late pickup available.
At Sequoia High School in Watsonville at 229 Green Valley Road
We can facilitate carpools.
Camp Registration is $500 including lunch, snacks, early drop off and late pickup childcare.
Financial assistance is available.
Questions? Contact Barbara at 831-334-1703 or barbara@xacademy.org
Marth Circle Faculty
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Dr. Alon Amit
Alon Amit is co-founder at Origami Logic and has previous worked at Facebook and Google. He frequently teaches at Math Circles around the Bay Area and is on the board of Proof School, a San Francisco full-curriculum school for kids who love math. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. in mathematics and a B.Sc. in Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
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Jennifer Gill
Jennifer Gill has been teaching elementary students at Watsonville Charter School of the Arts for 13 years. She has a BA in visual art, and uses her artistic background to integrate the arts into her teaching practice. Over the past few years, she has been studying how to blend art into mathematics. Math art requires problem solving and creativity. This practice makes connections between the left and right sides of the brain.
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Dr. Zvezdelina Stankova
Dr. Zvezdelina Stankova, a teaching professor at UC Berkeley, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Berkeley Math Circle. Inspired by her early success in math competitions in Bulgaria, she co-founded the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad and launched the Berkeley Math Circle during her postdoctoral fellowship at MSRI. A Harvard Ph.D., she has trained the USA IMO team, including the 2001 team that tied for second place globally.
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Zandra Vinegar
She studied Mathematics and Math Education at MIT. She completed her teaching program following MIT’s research in educational reform through implementing innovative technology. She holds a B.S. in Mathematics from MIT, and her areas of mathematical focus while in college were Abstract Algebra, Mathematical Economics, Computational Origami, and Theoretical Computer Science.
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Ruby Wong
Ruby Wong is an elementary educator currently teaching Santa Cruz Children’s School. She received her undergraduate degree from Loyola Marymount University with a B.A. in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Mathematics.
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Dr. Paul Zeitz
Dr. Paul Zeitz is the co-founder of Proof School and he currently serves as the Chair of Proof School’s Board of Directors. He is a USA Mathematical Olympiad winner and has dedicated time to training many of the US International Math Olympic teams. He is also the Mathematics Chair at the University of San Francisco and has spread his passion for math by founding the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad (BAMO) and the San Francisco Math Circle.
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Joshua Zucker
Joshua Zucker has been leading math circles for 20 years as a freelance math teacher serving on the Mathematical Sciences Advisory Board for Proof School. He is also the founding director of the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, co-founder of the Math Teachers' Circle program, a former problem writer for MathCounts, and an instructor for Art of Problem Solving.
Math Festivals
Julia Robinson Math Festival
The Julia Robinson Math Festival (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 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 serves 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 and in January for elementary students in 8th grade and younger. Only 2 schools in the county offer the AMC exam.
The X Academy has opened 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. We seek to make these opportunities more inclusive and accessible for all.
