WAMC Awards

Joyce Gong

Joyce started participating in Westchester Area Math Circle seminars and lectures as a high school freshman after moving to Connecticut in 2023. At the beginning of her sophomore year, she began volunteering as an instructor for our weekly Introductory Problem Solving Workshop which concentrates on topics related to middle school competitions such as AMC 8 and MATHCOUNTS. This is her third year teaching this workshop. Joyce not only helps students understand specific topics, but she herself identifies interesting topics and finds corresponding material.

In January 2025, Joyce and Arin suggested we add an annual AMC 8 Mock Exam session which has given students a special opportunity to become more familiar with the exam. They not only prepared the exam but also proctored it. This session has been very popular and well received by both our students and their parents.

Joyce is a patient, engaging, and supportive instructor who is able to meet her students across a wide range of abilities. She also proved to be very resourceful, especially this past winter when many of our sessions had to be moved online, including the AMC 8 Mock Exam and its follow up. To her credit, Joyce managed these sessions flawlessly despite all the last-minute changes.

Joyce is also an active competitor and represented WAMC at MMATHS, CMWMC and CMIMC. She has also provided private tutoring to our students.

Arin Cushman

Arin started attending Westchester Area Math Circle Recreational Seminars as a middle school student six years ago. To this day, Arin is a regular at our seminars and hardly misses any.

As a high school sophomore, Arin started volunteering as an instructor for our Introductory Problem Solving Workshop where they hold interactive lectures covering a wide range of topics related to middle school competitions, such as modular arithmetic, Fermat’s Little Theorem or stars and bars. To enhance students’ AMC 8 preparations, Arin alongside their co-instructor Joyce Gong designed and proctored an AMC 8 Mock exam in 2025 and 2026.

Arin has proved to be a capable instructor always willing to help not only their students but also other instructors and coaches. Their lesson preparation and delivery are exemplary. Arin and Joyce were invited to present and share their valuable experience at our internal teaching preparation workshop. Next spring Arin will have the opportunity to mentor our incoming 2027/28 instructor and pass on all the skills they have gained over the past three years.

Arin has also participated in EMCC, Purple Comet, MMATHS, and PUMaC. In their junior year they were the team captain of one of our MMATHS and Purple Comet teams. Their Purple Comet team placed 3rd in New York State.

Henry Xue

Henry first became involved with Westchester Area Math Circle in fall 2023, when he represented WAMC at MMATHS. Since then, he has become an active member of the WAMC community both as an instructor and competitor. This year marks his fourth year with WAMC and his third year as an instructor of the Advanced Problem Solving Workshop.

As an Advanced Problem Solving instructor, Henry helps prepare students for high school mathematics competitions. He selects and presents material appropriate for students preparing for different advanced competitions and works with them on challenging problems across a wide range of topics. Outside of the Advanced Workshop, Henry has also volunteered to coach a CWMCM team and helped out with middle school Purple Comet practice sessions. Over the last three years, Henry has developed into an experienced instructor who enjoys sharing his mathematical knowledge and his competition experience with other students.

Henry has also represented WAMC extensively in math competitions. He was the top scorer on the WAMC team at both ARML 2024 and ARML 2026 and served as a co-captain of the 2026 ARML team. In 2025, he captained WAMC to a 5th-place overall finish at BrUMO. Additionally, Henry has represented WAMC at HMMT, PUMaC, CMIMC, and MMATHS. His team placed 13th overall at HMMT 2024 and 3rd at BrUMO 2026.

Srihaan Seelam 

Srihaan came across Westchester Area Math Circle when looking for local opportunities to participate in competition math and joined WAMC at 8th grade.

Sri became part of our instructor team as a high school junior in fall 2025. He has volunteered as the instructor of our Advanced Problem Solving Workshop, which is dedicated to preparation for the majority of high school competitions, such as MMATHS, HMMT, and ARML.

Sri is a dedicated instructor who is capable of teaching not only our most advanced sessions and top teams but also students who are just starting with math competitions. Last year was WAMC’s first year participating in a new BrUMO Division B which is designed for students new to high school math competitions.  Sri not only helped to coach our BrUMO Division A team as part of the Advanced Problem Solving Workshop, but also volunteered to run all the coaching sessions for Division B in his free time. It’s to his credit that our team placed 9th overall in Division B. Additionally, he also volunteered to coach selected CMWMC sessions which weren’t part of our regular workshop sessions.

Sri has represented WAMC in Purple Comet, CMIMC, MMATHS, BrUMO, and ARML. He was the co-captain of the 2026 ARML team and a member of our BrUMO Division A team that placed 3rd overall in 2026 and 5th in 2025. Outside of math, Sri has qualified for the International Science and Engineering Fair twice, winning 3rd place each time in Earth and Environmental Science, and has presented his research at conferences in Taiwan and Australia.