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.
Winter 2025 Santa Cruz Math Circle
Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon
Cabrillo College, Building 300
February 1 through March 29, 2024
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
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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Dr. Tom Davis
Dr. Tom Davis is one of the Directors of the San Jose Math Circle. As a college student at Caltech, Tom competed in the Putnam math contest. With his PhD in Mathematics from Stanford PhD, Tom was a member of the founding team of Silicon Graphics International (SGI), where he worked for 16 years. All the animated movies you love including Toy Story, The Matrix, Shrek, and Lord of the Rings were made on SGI computers. His main interest is in geometry but unfortunately his main abilities lie in logic, the theory of computation, and in mathematical analysis.
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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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Yul Inn
Yul Inn founded the Fun Math Club in 2002 to share his passion for mathematics with his children and their friends. Using puzzles, games, and creative activities, he introduced advanced math topics in an engaging and entertaining way. With two Master’s degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Ohio State University, Yul applied his expertise from a career in Silicon Valley to inspire a love of math in young learners.
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Dr. Tatiana Shubin
Dr. Tatiana Shubin, a San Jose State University professor since 1985, earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics from UC Santa Barbara. Inspired by her education at a specialized math school in Siberia, she co-founded the San Jose Math Circle and Bay Area Math Adventures, becoming a leader in the National Math Circles movement. She also co-directs the Navajo Nation Math Circles project, bringing math enrichment to Navajo students and teachers through circles and summer camps.
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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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Dr. Kelli Talaska
Dr. Kelli Talaska, an award-winning lecturer in UC Berkeley's Mathematics Department, teaches at Epsilon Camp and several Bay Area math circles, including Berkeley and Santa Cruz. She earned a Ph.D. in algebraic combinatorics from the University of Michigan and was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley. Before graduate school, she taught math at Lowell High School in San Francisco.
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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.
