Mathematics and Computer Science

Rick Straughen, ’03, thought he was going into a career as a computer programmer. But he changed his mind at Albion College and is now impacting the lives of high school students in Michigan’s Utica Community Schools as an award-winning computer science and math teacher.

Students from seven high schools in southern Michigan recently got a day off from school to compete in Albion College’s second annual W. Keith Moore Math Competition. The students competed both as individuals and teams, with pencil-and-paper quizzes, the “Pony Express” math relay, and even a math scavenger hunt that took them across campus.

“I have always been interested in both sciences and arts, but I could never find a way of combining my two passions,” writes Liliya Chernysheva, ’19. “Choosing just one path always seemed to me like a terrible mistake. So it was great, this past summer, to work with math professor Dave Reimann on a mathematical art research project.”

Students from six different high schools in southern Michigan got a day off from school in May to compete in Albion College’s first W. Keith Moore Math Competition. The students competed both as individuals and teams, with pencil-and-paper quizzes and even a math scavenger hunt that took them across campus.