Khushi Pusnur, Payton HS

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Math Circles introduced me to a new way of doing math: exploration.

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Khushi has been a part of nearly every facet of the Math Circles of Chicago experience: starting from taking lessons at our University of Chicago hub, she has participated in our research symposium, QED multiple times, and sparked a love for research and inquiry. As a teaching assistant, she has worked with students both in traditional math circles and in our single day festivals. The connecting thread between all of these activities is sharing her authentic joy and interest in questions of her own choosing with other young mathematicians in Chicago.

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How did you develop an interest in mathematics? What has your learning experience been like in school up to this point? What challenges, socially and/or academically, have you faced in this journey? 

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Mama despised math growing up: her village had one girls' school and zero math teachers who cared about math. Despite her hatred of Math and lack of knowledge about anything STEM, Mama spent hours researching to see if any such classes existed. The good news was that there was an endless supply of Math Olympiad prep classes. The bad news was that they were all worth a month's rent minimum. With both my parents working minimum wage student jobs, that wasn’t going to cut it. I had lost hope until a couple of days later, when I accidentally stumbled across a nonprofit website called Math Circles. 

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After a couple of failed attempts at trying to get us to socialize, the teacher took out a piece of chalk and started drawing all over the whiteboard. She drew a massive triangle, leaving spaces at the three vertices and a space in between each side, and then said, “Play around with it”.

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Math Circles introduced me to a new way of doing math: exploration. At the end of every year, they ran QED, a math symposium where people could present their own research. I was hesitant at first, but my Math Circles’ teacher told me I could choose any puzzle I wanted. On the day of the symposium, I opened up my tri-fold board, revealing cutouts of funky-looking triangles with empty spaces, with the title Magic Triangles. 

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My experiences have shown me that true math isn’t about knowing but discovering. It’s about feeling like the dumbest person in the room, and trying over and over again until you hit that indescribable Aha moment. More than anything, mathematics to me is freedom. Freedom in the challenging, intricate, and unknown.

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What is your mathematical power? How has your work with Math Circles of Chicago helped you develop that power?

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One Saturday morning, as my grade in math was dropping, I made my walk to my Hub session at the University of Chicago. We launched the lesson as planned. I walked between some of the groups to see how they were doing. Some of the groups had begun engaging with the problems immediately, already discovering patterns and rules within the game. Other groups sat quietly, looking at their paper, and doing their very best to avoid eye contact when I walked by. The feeling was familiar: being lost about how to begin, but too scared to ask for help. 

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I sat down with a pair of students. Both of their pages were blank, but neither of them spoke to each other, shrinking away in their fear of not knowing. After much convincing, I got them to talk to each other about the question. What started out as mumbled descriptions of the problem soon turned into questioning and discussion. By the end of class, they had fallen into excited debates about generalizations and patterns. What started as a fear of not belonging quickly turned into a passion for exploration through collaboration.

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I realized that being silent meant I was never going to break out of the barriers I had created for myself. On Monday during school, as much as it scared me, instead of sitting silently in my confusion, I got up. I went from table to table asking questions and showing my ideas. Soon, other students began chiming in as well. We all connected through our shared love of exploration and challenge we found in mathematics. By the end of class, everybody was working on problems together and helping each other, and all of a sudden, I didn’t feel so alone.

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MC2 College Pathways is dedicated to helping students find their own pathway forward in STEM. Please describe your future plans for college and beyond. 

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I was the only fifth grader in the junior division. I sat with my mom and dad during the awards ceremony in the strange auditorium. The announcer called out the winner of each distinction: successful, distinguished, and highly distinguished research. It felt like they called out nearly every name but mine by the end of the ceremony. My mom squeezed my shoulders and told me it didn’t matter, and I had still done something amazing. I smiled, but a part of my nine-year-old self was pretty bummed. We waited by the stairs for my dads as people buzzed about. My dad appeared with a stack of items in his hands. 

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Apparently, the announcer had forgotten my name when they were calling out awards, and I had won something. I was beyond ecstatic. Everyone got an award, but that didn’t matter to me. I read through my judge's feedback excitedly. There was something special about that feeling, of someone recognizing your work, your exploration, that I loved; a shared experience of discovery.

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Math Circles showed me that I could do research. It showed me a world of learning I probably would’ve never known existed. I have fallen in love with research ever since, whether it be my game design project at ISEF or my computational research about how mathematics relates to quantum physics or chemistry.

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These experiences have inspired my goals to pursue a career in scientific research. In college, I want to study how mathematics helps us understand the hidden nature of the physical world around us through science. I want to continue pursuing research after graduation through a PhD program, and then in academia or a research laboratory. In essence, I want to explore the natural world through mathematics. Math Circles gave me the confidence and spark that I was capable of doing big things, of thinking things that mattered, and exploring challenging ideas. It showed me what was possible and that I could be a part of something powerful.

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