In keeping with its focus on education and youth, Island Gems Charity Foundation sponsored a round-trip air ticket for Milton Peters College (MPC) Mathematics A-Lympiad team to head to Garderen in the Netherlands to compete against other math whizzes.
The island’s oldest charity foundation was contacted by a parent of a team member seeking assistance for the four youngsters. The Gems thought it fit to sponsor at least one air ticket for the team.
“We did not specify to which student the ticket goes. We simply paid the cost of one ticket directly to the airline and it is up to the team to get the rest of its funding,” said Island Gems President Alita Singh and Vice President Karine Fleming.
“We wish our resident math whizzes the very best in solving their mathematical problems in the Netherlands. Their placement in the prestigious competition is already a boost for the country. It is also a great promotion point as well. After all, MPC has already brought home the top trophy once and we hope this team will do it again,” said Singh and Fleming.
Forming the MPC math team are Veerle Bok, Reno Brooks (who has competed before), Mahealeney Kemper and Melissa Mingo. They will be part of the final round of competition on March 14-15.
Island Gems Singh, Fleming, Kerisha James, Jody Rosen, Milva Hoeve, Monica Idnani, and Marieke van Zadelhoff recently met with the math whizzes at MPC to learn more about their preparation and to wish them well in their endeavours.
The Mathematics A-Lympiad is based on a problem-solving or modelling component found in mathematics curriculum in many countries. Working on these skills is often put on the shelf, because textbooks often do not provide good examples of appropriate tasks, and teachers do not know how they are supposed to deal with this. The Mathematics A-lympiad fills this gap by providing appropriate tasks to practice these skills.
The Mathematics A-lympiad has two rounds: the preliminary round with about 1,000 teams of students competing for a day at their own schools (in their own countries), and an international final in which about 16 teams compete during a whole weekend, in a conference centre in a Dutch national park.
In the Netherlands, the best nine Dutch teams are invited to the final round.
Since 2000, St. Maarten and Aruba have been part of the competition. As Dutch and English are the languages spoken on those islands, the assignments are also translated into English. Other teams will come from Denmark, Germany and other invited countries.
The funds used by Island Gems to sponsor the air ticket for the team is derived from its annual fundraising dinner. The foundation hosts one gala costume dinner annually, and distributes the funds to worthy social, educational, community and other causes on both sides of the island.
The 2015 dinner, themed Caribbean Creole, will be held at Captain Oliver’s restaurant in Oyster Pond on Saturday, March 28. Master of Ceremonies for the evening is the well-known entertainer Leroy “King Beau Beau” Brooks, who has donated his services to aid the for-charity event.
Tickets for the dinner cost US $125 each, and are available from all Island Gems members.
