Omaha Central’s Math Club does more than most might give them credit for, recently having students compete in the American Mathematic Competition, which is a national event sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. 

Math club is somewhere students can learn different parts of math they don’t typically learn inside a classroom, allowing them to dive deeper into something they might not have known before.  

“I think math gets a bad rep, but it can be honestly very fun and useful to train your brain to think in those different ways and to really challenge yourself outside of just what you do in your math class,” said math teacher Hannah Monson, one of the sponsors of math club.  

A few things the club does to achieve some of these goals are taking part in competitions both in and out of state against other schools, one of these being the AMC. While this competition is exam-focused, there are also more hands-on style competitions. Along with this, they also host a middle school math competition each year to recruit younger students to Central. 

 This past summer, the math club made it to a national conference in Orlando, which was a great experience they aim to have again this year. “It was just really fun to see all the different styles of math and see people who also love math from all over the country,” Monson said. 

A few student leaders of this club are Joshua Shapiro, the president and a regional representative, and Sienna Maskin, one of the vice presidents. Both are seniors this year and have had wonderful experiences with the club. 

Maskin always looked up to the seniors and leaders throughout her time with the club, admiring the passion they had for math. “It’s honestly awesome for me because I’ve been in math club since ninth grade and this is the first year where I really stepped up and took some responsibility,” Maskin said.   

“It’s a really cool experience being to meet people around the country and across the state,” Shapiro said.  

Math club meets every Thursday after school at pi time, 3:14 p.m., and they encourage students to get involved and show up. 

“I’ll say it’s just an accessible way to get into math. I think a lot of contests are very pressured by grades, but I think this is more flexible and fun,” Shapiro said.