Teaching and Service

Two OLLI students exploring a combinatorial game. (Taken by me.)

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program at UMN provides an opportunity for graduate students to design 7-week courses of their choosing for lifelong learners from local communities.

In Spring 2022, I designed and taught an interactive course on combinatorial puzzles and games. The students' backgrounds ranged from people with PhDs in math to people who had not done any math since taking calculus 40+ years ago. My focus was on creating activities that were inquiry-based and accessible to all backgrounds. The students would play the games with each other and figure out some of the strategies and generalizations (with some nudging by me as necessary). Then, we would discuss some deeper connections to ideas from combinatorics, number theory, graph theory, etc.

It was an amazing experience to be able to teach a course on a topic that I was personally interested in to a group of students that were interested, engaged, and enthusiastic.

A very nice article by Anastasia Faunce about my experience with OLLI can be found here.

MathCEP Saturday Morning Enrichment

The University of Minnesota's Mathematics Center for Educational Programs (MathCEP) offers Saturday Morning Enrichment classes for 5-7th grade students from schools in the surrounding area. These classes are an opportunity to show young students some topics from higher-level math in a fun and accessible way.

I ran sessions on Eulerian cycles, coding theory, and graph colorings. Participating in this program was not only fun and rewarding, but also a great pedagogical learning experience. The lesson plans designed by MathCEP were really well done and taught me a lot about how to make advanced math understandable and interesting to students without any formal background.

Aaron and students thinking about the Konigsberg Bridge Problem. (Taken by Elise Catania.)

Campers working on a four-coloring of a map of the United States. (Taken by me.)

MathCEP Adventures in Math Summer Program

I served as an instructor for MathCEP's Adventures in Math summer program in July 2024. Working with a rambunctious group of 4th-6th graders, I led sessions on topics like Ancient Number Systems, Folding and Cutting, Graph Coloring, etc.

It was amazing to get experience with a variety of hands-on activities and introduce some complex mathematical ideas to the campers. The lessons designed by MathCEP were extremely creative and engaging.

Naya Welcher (Spelman College '25) presenting her Directed Reading Project on The Mathematics of Elections and Voting for the Atlanta Undergraduate Research Mathematics Seminar. (Provided by Naya Welcher.)

Directed Reading Program

I am one of the organizers for the UMN Directed Reading Program. The DRP is a graduate student-run program that provides undergraduates with the opportunity to work closely with mathematics graduate students on an independent reading project. I have mentored students through projects on books like A Guide to Graph Coloring: Algorithms and Applications by R.M.R. Lewis.

I was also selected to be one of the Fall 2022 mentors for the Spelman-Morehouse Directed Reading Program. My mentee Naya Welcher and I explored The Mathematics of Elections and Voting by W.D. Wallis.

I think the Directed Reading Program is a great way to work one on one with undergraduates students on a topic that may not be part of their normal curriculum. I am very grateful that the program has let me work with several bright and passionate young math students.

Read an article about the UMN DRP here.

Courses

Fall 2020: 1271 (Calculus 1)

Spring 2021: 1272 (Calculus 2)

Fall 2021: 1151 (Pre-Calculus)

Spring 2022: OLLI and MathCEP's Saturday morning enrichment

Fall 2022: 3283W (Sequences and Series)

Spring 2023 – Spring 2025: MathCEP's Saturday morning enrichment

Spring 2025: 1272 (Calculus 2)

Service

Some other groups/activities that I am or have been involved with at the University of Minnesota are:

Cancer Bioengineering Initiative Junior Investigator Steering Committee: The CBI hosts talks, career development events, and provides pilot funding opportunities for junior investigators in cancer research at the University of Minnesota. As a member of the Junior Investigator Steering Committee, I help organize CBI events.
UMN Council of Graduate Students (COGS) Grant Committee: I have served as a reviewer for the COGS grants.
The UMN Math Club: The goal of the club is to provide support, community, professional development, and mathematical enrichment for undergraduate students. As an organizer of Math Club from 2021-2023, I helped plan math talks, panels on REUs, graduate school, internships, etc.
SIAM at UMN: In 2022, I served as the Deputy Treasurer of SIAM and helped organize events for community building and professional development.

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