16th Annual Sonia Kovalevsky Math Day for High School Girls

FREDERICK, Maryland—Approximately 90 girls and teachers from 11 high schools in Frederick County attended Hood College’s 16th Annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day for high school girls on Oct. 15 to learn about careers for women in math and the sciences and explore these subjects. This event was made possible through generous support from PNC Bank and Frederick County Public Schools.

The students spent the day in four workshops, learning a variety of ways to use math and the sciences in real jobs.

Sara Malec, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics, led a workshop called “Sending Secrets with Mathematics,” in which students learned about public-key cryptography, such as username and password combinations, that keep data secret. They also learned how prime numbers and algebra make sites like Amazon and eBay possible.

Katrina Jongman-Sereno, Ph.D., assistant professor of social psychology, taught “Statistics in Social Psychology,” about using statistics to make sense of human thought, emotion and behavior.

Jill Tysse, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics, led “Using Math to Save Lives,” where she covered how to use mathematics to analyze the spread of diseases such as measles, the flu and smallpox, and how to prevent epidemics.

Georgette Jones, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, and Susan Carney, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, taught “Crisis in Maryland: Are Blue M&Ms Endangered?” which covered methods scientists use to determine how distributions of animal species may vary in different locations.

After the workshops, students listened to a career panel of women discuss their careers in mathematical fields, including Hood alumna Alyssa Burdette ’17, a service contract analyst at Seneca Global Services; Jeanine May, Ph.D., senior biostatistician manager at the Emmes Company; Grace Senat, head of IFRS17 and PBR implementation and Legal and General America; and alumna Catherine Traini ’16, a cybersecurity consultant at Guidehouse (formerly PwC Public Sector).

“We are thrilled, with support of PNC Bank and Frederick County Public Schools, to be able to run this event for our local high school students,” said Tysse, co-organizer of the event. “We relish in the opportunity to expose the students to applications of mathematics that they do not necessarily see in the course of their studies in high school, and to surround them with women who do mathematics for a living.”

Sonia Kovalevsky Days were initially introduced by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) in 1985, and have been held at colleges and universities all over the country in the years since. These events honor Russian mathematician, Sonia Kovalevsky, the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, and are designed to encourage and celebrate young women in their mathematical studies.

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Hood College is an independent, liberal arts college, offering 28 bachelor’s degrees, four pre-professional programs, 19 master’s degrees programs, two doctorates and 10 post-baccalaureate certificates. Located in historic Frederick, near Washington, D.C., Baltimore and the I-270 technology corridor, Hood gives students access to countless internships and research opportunities.

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