MathPath 2020 Finale & Recap

That’s a wrap! MathPath 2020 is officially complete, and it ended with a bang. The end of our last week consisted of activity finales, breakout conclusions and a closing ceremony complete with a final plenary, a talent show, and many, many goodbyes! We are incredibly grateful to our staff, faculty, counselors, students and families for helping make remote MathPath a success in these uncertain times. We had a blast, and we hope you did too!


Our counselor groups have become truly close over the span of this month, spending time with each other at least three times per MathPath-day. They showed their spirit one last time on Friday’s “Counselor Group Theme” day, where they chose their own theme and dressed up to show it!

Ian’s counselor group’s Spirit Week theme

Our counselors did an incredible job bringing the fun to remote MathPath. They managed to put on roughly 20 activities a day — allowing us to repeat our favorites, but coming up with new ideas all the way until the end. We played endless games of Skribblio, Werewolf and Decrypto with Ella, Bea and Corinne. Ian, Maddy and Hannah puzzled through weekly crosswords and sudokus with us, while Cedar led Puzzle Hunt discussions to satisfy our curiosity. From Isaac’s friendship bracelets to MiKayla’s paper airplane engineering, we saved some time for crafts — Ellie even led us in building some real-life Glensheep! Sydney kept us entertained with mazes and clueless crosswords, and Maciej led us around the world in Geoguessr. So to our counselors — thank you for the fun, the laughs, and the friendships!

Our twelve amazing counselors

On Friday, our beloved faculty wrapped up week three breakouts, Dr. Kent gave us a final history plenary, and Prof. D led one last writing plenary. Prof. Rogness gave his famous closing plenary on Saturday, where we followed his journey to internet fame through a video on a topic in complex analysis. 

Prof. Rogness’s viral “Möbius Transformations Revealed”

Thanks to our faculty, we learned about the history of math, how to refine our mathematical writing, and attended two classes focusing on specific topics every single day. That sure is a lot of math! Glen took us on a historical journey from Pythagoras in Greece to Liu Hui in China, picked up by Dr. Kent who led us in an exploration of Gauss, Noether and many more. Prof. D led us in a writing workshop where we developed our writing skills through constructive criticism and discussion. Dr. V and Prof. Rogness gave us interesting plenary talks each Saturday where we saw the beauty of combinatorics, number theory and Möbius transformations. And finally, our other nine faculty members offered breakout classes (each student participating in two a week), where we got to explore the topics of our choice in greater depth. We’re so appreciative of our faculty for what they’ve given us over this summer, and can’t wait to continue with what we’ve learned! 

“Good morning everybody!”

We also owe a big thank you to our staff! Our Interim Executive Director Dr. V, Academic Director Prof. D, and, of course, our fearless leader and Program Director April (along with her two assistants Ben and Sarah). They really made it happen behind the scenes — putting together the faculty for the year, planning logistics, setting up the technology, including the infamous MathPath Portal, and keeping things organized this past month.


And finally, thank you (our 2020 MathPathers and families, that is). Without you, there’d be no MathPath! We are lucky that you shared our optimism for this year’s setting, and we’re extremely grateful that all of you decided to join us this summer. You brought the energy and fun that makes this program so special. So goodbye, and good luck, and we hope you stay in touch!

Thank you MathPath 2020!