The Western University student chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) has won the community outreach award in the seventh annual AWM student chapter competition.
There are more than 100 student chapters in AWM, an international organization committed to creating a community in which women and girls can thrive in their mathematical endeavors. It also advocates for the equitable treatment of women and other marginalized populations across mathematical sciences.
The Western chapter is one of four in Canada and started in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AWM Western founding president Jacqueline Doan. (Jacqueline Doan photo)
Founding president Jacqueline Doan was inspired to start the group while attending an orientation session for her master of science in math program.
“I met one other woman there. Looking around, I thought this couldn’t be the case and that there had to be more of us.”
Eager to create “something that would bring us all together,” Doan started making connections, which led to opening the Western AWM chapter. She assembled the original group that included herself, Sophie Wu, Lucas MacQuarrie and Micaela Vancea.
“Our first meeting felt energized,” Doan said. “We were all very excited to get our hands on this.”
For Vancea, the current outgoing president of Western AWM, “the opportunity to join this club in my third year felt like a breath of fresh air. To be surrounded by these like-minded people was a great place to be.”
AWM Western outgoing president Micaela Vancea. (Micaela Vancea photo)
She added that it was important to have men on the AWM executive.
“They want to be a part of it. They want to see a change because they love doing math with us and they know we belong here.”
Since the original meeting in 2021, the group has grown to more than 25 members, and now serves as the main facilitator of the math department’s outreach efforts for women and other underrepresented groups.
“It’s awesome to receive this award, not just for our chapter and executive teams but for everyone – the faculty, the administrative staff and all the people – who helped us on this journey,” Doan said.
Recruiting and retaining minority groups into mathematics
The AWM recognized the Western chapter for their successful programs aimed at recruiting and retaining students into the field of mathematics.
To reach students at the kindergarten to grade 12 level, the group participated in the national STEM outreach event, Science Rendezvous. They also visited area secondary schools to talk about math and career pathways and organized a high school math poster competition.
At Western, the group hosted a mathematics career panel, a math art workshop and a variety of social events. The AWM judging panel noted “the Western chapter members took special care in planning these activities, accounting for the challenges and interests of students who are often marginalized in the mathematics community.”
Western News sat down with Doan, BSc’21, MSc’23 and Vancea, BSc’23, to discuss the group’s achievements.
WN: AWM Western’s mission is to “make math more accessible to everyone.” How important is representation when it comes to pursuing an education in math?
Doan: It’s incredibly important. I remember during the second year of my undergraduate studies, I told my parents I was considering math. They were worried for me because they hadn’t seen a woman mathematician in the media yet. That was a barrier that deterred me a little bit, but I ended up going into it anyway.
Also, when you’re a minority in anything, not just math, it’s my experience if you’re not with the right people, it may be that your words aren’t taken as seriously. We have to convince people a little bit more to get our point across.
Nothing can describe the feeling of having everyone around you understanding your experience. It’s about acceptance and being comfortable with speaking your mind. That’s very important when you collaborate on assignments. Having our community positively impacted my experience in mathematics and my performance in the classes.
Vancea: In my (Stratford, Ont.) high school, there were a ton of girls who loved math. My calculus class was around 95 per cent girls. Then suddenly it seemed in higher education, there’s this sudden lack of women in STEM. Although we all know this objectively, when it showed up, it really caught me off guard.
Walking into my first pure math class at university, where there were only three or four women in a class of 40 students, was shocking. I felt a little lonely. You start wondering if you should be here and if you belong. You have your first interaction where you feel you have to prove yourself. Especially with the pandemic hitting in my first year, it just compounded this feeling of isolation as a woman in math.
WN: How important was the outreach your group extended beyond Western?
Doan: Outreach to younger students is very important in breaking down stereotypes, changing images people have of mathematicians from an early age.
It’s also important to our mission of recruitment. Creating this smooth pipeline into university from elementary and high school means conversations like the one I had with my parents won’t be repeated. No one will be saying, “There are no women mathematicians, why would you want to be there?”
Micaela Vancea (far right) returned to her Stratford high school where her teachers, Brandy Shaw and Nick Armstrong (centre) first sparked her passion for math. Vancea was joined by fellow AWM Western members (from left) Sophie Wu and Jacqueline Doan to deliver a presentation aimed to engage and excite students about the subject of math and potential careers in the field. (AWM Western photo)
WN: Micaela, one of the high schools the Western AWM visited was the one you attended – Stratford Central. What was it like returning as a mentor, to talk to students about math?
Vancea: It felt so great because both my former math teachers Mr. (Nick) Armstrong and Mrs. (Brandy) Shaw were huge influences on why I chose to study math at university. They approached the subject with excitement. Mr. Armstrong also did his undergraduate degree in math, so he did a lot of lessons in addition to our curriculum just for interest’s sake to show us a really cool side of math.
When kids see someone they look up to or in charge of them loving math and directing so much energy towards it, they can fall in love with it.
Now I’m a person who also gets very excited by math. To go back to the place where I first found that love of math, share my own little spark and try to ignite that in the kids ─ and seeing how they were so interested and engaged by the end of our presentation ─ was amazing.
WN: What did your presentations to the students entail?
Vancea: Everyone in our group had a different specialty to contribute to the presentations.
I gave a 20-minute lecture on basic questions and proofs because when I first came to Western and began learning a different kind of math that is more abstract, rather than applied, it was just more fun for me. I also included the teachers’ names in the questions to get the students engaged.
Sophie is very artistic, so she talked about art in math. Alex (Busch) is in neuroscience, so she talked about the cool experiments she was doing at school using math.
Jacqueline talked about the different avenues you can take after earning a math degree and specifically talked about the Western alumni who’ve gone into finance, obtained master’s degrees or PhDs.
We wanted to show the different facets of math and that you are not just sitting at your desk doing calculations.
A coffee chat with world-renowned mathematician and visiting fellow Maria Chudnovsky made a powerful and lasting impact. (L to R): AWM Western chapter founding president Jacqueline Doan, outgoing president Micaela Vancea, Maria Chudnovsky and outgoing AWM Western vice-president Sophie Wu (AWM Western photo)
WN: One of the events you organized for Western students was a coffee chat with world-renowned mathematician and visiting fellow Maria Chudnovsky. What was that like for you?
Vancea: It was so amazing. I was buzzing all day after chatting with her. I was so affected by everything she had to say.
Doan: It was definitely refreshing to see such a successful female mathematician. She also brought her team with her to Western, so we got to engage with them too.
WN: Jacqueline, you organized an event bringing high-profile Western math grads to campus. How was that received?
Doan: We brought in two alumni for a math finance event on Zoom – Eric Tang, BSc’21 and Gianfranco Bino, PhD’21.
They answered a lot of questions about how they got into math, how to prepare for interviews and how to find a job in math finance. It was a very industry-focused event. One of the people attending the event was put in contact with a recruiter at Morgan Stanley through one of our guests. It came to show how important networking events like this are. I actually got my current job through one of the contacts. I connected with him, and he helped me prepare for the recruitment process.
Vancea: I think that ties back so well to AWM as a club. People underestimate the importance of representation. Seeing someone in a field we’re interested in, speaking to our experience as women in math like Maria Chudnovsky, who was so cool, confident and knowledgeable, has great impact. People who are constantly represented just don’t understand it, because that’s their norm.
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The Western AVM 2021-22 executive team included Jacqueline Doan, Micaela Vancea, Sophie Wu, Alex Busch and Lucas MacQuarrie. The 2022-23 executive included Vancea, Wu, MacQuarrie, Alex Zwart, Erina Mitha and Jonah West. The chapter’s faculty sponsors are professor Lindi Wahl and professor Chris Kapulkin.
