Mathematics and Me

As a Vietnamese-Canadian, I have learned throughout my experiences in my culture that Mathmatics competencies and abilities are regarded very highly. My parents paid extra close attention to mine and my sister's skills in this subject growing up; even holding it to a higher standard than English despite us being ELLs. I believe that this belief stems from Capitalistic ideals in business which many anti-communist Vietnamese families had and that high mathematical ability correlated with business success and therefore success in life. My family's investment in my Mathematical ability manifested in my enrollment in extracurricular tutoring at a learning center.

Although I never struggled in Math as a result of my family's interest in me, I found great purpose at this learning center. Here, I was exposed to Mathematics outside of my own age group advancing to materials in high school as an elementary school student. This increase in capabilities allowed me to explore Mathematics further in highschool when I discovered Math outreach youtube channels such as Numberphile, Vihart, and Vsauce.

Discovering these outreach resources inspired me to pursue Mathmatics academically in Post-Secondary and my desire to spread my love of the subject. Through watching these people and their passion and capabilities, I grew inspired to teach math as a profession hoping to enrich the public with new knowledge of mathematics outside of the regular curriculum. One day, I hope to write a book about my favourite math subject, Graph Theory, but to frame it in a perspective that is fun and game-driven for it to be accessible to small school children.