Cause Project
by ART OF PROBLEM SOLVING FOUNDATION
Project Details
Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAM) creates realistic pathways for underserved students with talent in math to become scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and programmers.
We run both summer programs and year-round events, and our support extends from grades 6-12. The key to our success is that we're run by people with serious technical backgrounds so the work accurately reflects the preparation students need. We designed our program to give students not just the academic preparation, but also the social/emotional preparation to enter into the same opportunities for advanced study as their more affluent peers. BEAM has been running in New York since 2011 and is expanding to Los Angeles in 2018.
For more information:
Visit our website --- http://www.beammath.org
Read a NY Times article about us, and solve some math problems! --- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/nyregion/new-york-math-camp.html
Read an Atlantic Monthly article about us --- http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/the-math-revolution/426855/
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Here are some examples of how we've enabled our summer 2016 cohort to thrive (copied from our organization page):
Of 80 students entering high school, 49 were admitted into selective schools including the Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical School, Bard High School Early College, Stuyvesant High School, and more.
29 of our students were admitted to summer programs at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. Two of those qualified for a special five-year scholarship program called CTY Scholars, out of only six students selected in New York City.
One of our students was admitted to the highly selective middle school summer program MathPath.
Two of our students received the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholars Fellowship, providing tremendous resources for their high school educations. They were two of just 65 7th graders selected nationally.
In just the three weeks of the summer, the median student score on the AMC-8, a national math contest taken by some of the best middle school mathematicians nationwide, generally rises by about 10-15 percentile points.
Our students love their summer. They talk about us as a family. They genuinely learn to love mathematics and mathematical reasoning, and they get away from rote problem solving.
To give you a sense of our students and what they overcome with our help, here are a few brief profiles.
One student from 2012 lived with his mother in NYC on $12,000 a year. He's a quiet kid, defies a lot of stereotypes (he's a black boy, and he bonded with an Asian girl at the program because they both liked anime). At BEAM, he was popular for the first time, loved by everyone---a huge change from school, where he was a loner. He was incredibly sharp at math and got abstract concepts really quickly, and he thrived. After getting into a highly-selective residential high school on full scholarship, he's now at Wesleyan University.
A girl from our first summer is from Ghana. She's fantastic and hard-working, but this was before we had support for getting into good schools and she's going to an area public school that's not really very good. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up to go back and help people in her home country. We helped her apply and get accepted to the Mathworks Honors Summer Math Camp at Texas State University on full scholarship, and she now goes to Manhattan College, a selective private school.
One girl lives with her mother on less than $14,000 a year. Her mother is an artist, and doesn't know about the systems that are out there. This girl kills at math --- one of the best we've ever had --- but has had no opportunity to study anything beyond the basic math of school. She now goes to Bronx Science and attended the summer program MathPath.
One of our alumni was trying to apply to Bard High School Early College, his dream school. To apply, he had to take their admissions test, complete an interview, and fill out the Round 1 application, which all NYC 8th graders must complete. Even though this form was due in December, we found out in January that he had not filled it out because his charter school did not distribute the form---hoping to keep the students in-network and raise their retention statistics. We were able to work with the Department of Education administration to allow him to submit his forms more than a month late. He now attends BHSEC, which has opened his eyes to all kinds of new opportunities, and has found a home on their Ultimate Frisbee team after some rough middle school years. With our help, he's also gone to summer programs in forensic science.
Another student was accelerated by a year in his school, but the school did not coordinate with the Department of Education and so he was officially a 7th-grader while taking 8th-grade classes. His official application to go up a grade was denied, so we wrote a letter of support and had him re-submit his application. This time he was accepted, but now it was after the high school selection deadline, so he'd have to go to a very low-performing neighborhood school. Again we worked with the DOE to arrange an extension, and he is was accepted to Bard High School Early College.
Another girl from this past summer lives with her mother who speaks no English. They don't know the system at all, so this girl did everything herself from a young age. She went everywhere throughout NYC on her own; she had to fill out any forms on her own; she had to completely manage her own learning with basically no input from her parents. With our help, she's attended the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth for three summers and then Project SMART at the University of New Hampshire. She got into Brooklyn Tech high school with our help.
There's a story for every student. We would love your support if you can help our students succeed!
Donation Deadline
Deadline Not Specified
Project Website
http://www.beammath.org Project Location
55 Exchange Pl Ste 603, NEW YORK,
New York 10005-2012
United States.