For those of you who think numbers and words don’t go together, Thetford Academy junior Jacob Slaughter has proven you wrong. Not only is he known for his mathematics skills, he has also won the national Association for Women in Mathematics annual essay contest. The topic was “Biographies of Women in Mathematics,” and Jacob picked a subject close to home.

He wrote about Dartmouth College Professor Rosa Orellana. He explained his choice in the opening paragraph of his essay: “I recognized Professor Orellana in a Dartmouth College photo when searching for a mathematician to interview because I have seen her running for years on the road by my house. When I asked her about running, she laughed. A woman had stopped her recently on a run and said that Orellana had inspired her to start running. ‘You can be a role model even when you don’t think you are, just doing something you love,’ she mused.”

The essay, titled “Running the Numbers,” describes how Professor Orellana overcame the bias of those in her high school who felt women didn’t have an interest in learning math. Today, she leads the field in researching algebraic combinatorics. She is also a mentor to young girls and women who want to explore careers in math.

If you’d like to read Jacob’s entire essay, visit the Association for Women in Mathematics website, https://sites.google.com/site/awmmath/programs/essay-contest/2018-essay-winners.