Yim hopes to boost Math Club membership

When Math Club started about six years ago, it consisted of four students. There were no practices, no officers and few competitions. According to math teacher and club adviser P.J. Yim, the club back then was mostly “like hanging out” for these students.

Nowadays, Yim hopes that the club will be less exclusive and that more students will join it, regardless of their mathematical talents. He said he is not sure how many members will be in the club this year, since people tend to “come and go.”

“[I hope to see] learning and the kids helping each other and finding themselves, finding their niches within the club,” Yim said. “When we first started, only the serious, serious kids were a part of it. [Now] we’re trying to make it more open to a lot of people.”

Yim added that this year, he would like students in the club to focus less on competing with each other and more on setting personal goals.

“I hope the emphasis is not so much, ‘How am I doing against everyone else?’ but ‘How am I doing compared to last year?’ and ‘Am I learning anything?’” Yim said. “If you like math, you like math. Kids who want to learn, that’s what I want to see.”

According to Yim, the club’s upcoming events are the Santa Clara Valley Math Association (SCVMA) Senior Olympiad and the Santa Clara University high school math contest. The club will also occasionally have lunchtime contests to test members’ skills.

Yim said that the club’s “serious” events, like the American Mathematics Competition (AMC), will begin in February. In the meantime, members are striving to prepare early on in the year for competitions like this one.

“We are trying to come up with lessons [and] practice packets so that the middle-of-the-road kids, as well as the superstars, will do better than last year, and try and have fun while that’s going on,” Yim said.

According to Yim, the officers this year are much more organized and prepared than those from previous years. Senior Matthew Lee is the middle school liaison. Senior Priyanka Krishnamurthi is this year’s contest master, helping prepare the high schoolers for upcoming contests. Junior Kevin Chiang is the treasurer, while sophomore Nathan Ney is the secretary.

All of the officers and several other members also act as coaches for the Redwood math club. Club members at Redwood are split up according to ability, coached by Lee, Krishnamurthi, and junior Landon Chow.

As for Yim’s major goal, he said: “I just want everybody to do a little bit better than last year. That’s my goal: for everybody to reach [his or her] goal.”