Lilly Griswold, 2025 Michigan Voyager cohort
Lilly Griswold nearly derailed her uncle’s medical career before she even turned three.
While studying child development, he found his textbook lessons didn’t line up with what he saw in his own niece. “He joked that he was not going to pass his boards,” Lilly’s mother Katherine recalls, “because he was comparing the developmental milestones to Lilly, and she was so far beyond what the average milestones were.”
It all worked out. He’s a family physician now, so no worries there.
Lilly’s early advancement was a surprise to everyone around her. She was speaking in three-word sentences at 11 months old. She was multiplying tally marks at two. In Montessori preschool, she’d listen in on the kindergarten math circle during free play, then come home and replicate what she’d learned. By first grade, her standardized test scores were landing her in the 99th percentile.
Despite her daughter’s obvious gifts, Katherine ran into hurdles trying to secure more advanced learning for Lilly. Their small, rural school district has no gifted and talented program, so when Katherine pushed for additional assessment, she was told that even with validation through testing there wasn’t anything they could do.
Still, Katherine and Lilly weren’t about to stop there. Lilly’s 3rd grade NWEA MAP test results showed that her academic growth was stagnating — further evidence that Lilly’s classroom material alone simply wasn’t challenging enough. They continued to look for options.
Serendipitously, National Math Stars had just launched in Michigan. A few months later, Lilly became one of the first two Michigan students accepted into the Voyager Stars program.
With NMS backing, Lilly was able to take the CogAT, a cognitive abilities assessment administered in districts across the country but unavailable to her locally. Armed with that data – and additional resources provided by NMS – her school was able to make appropriate accommodations. Now, Lilly has one hour of weekly tutoring scheduled into her school day. Additional time is carved out for Beast Academy books or AoPS coursework whenever classroom materials fall below her level.
“They’re kind of doing a little bit of a hybrid for her,” Katherine explains. Lilly is nine and currently working through Beast Academy 5CD, an honors-level fifth grade math program with sixth grade elements.
The NMS experience has given the family more than just academic tools. At NMS Welcome Weekend, she met three other girls, and they’ve all become fast friends. They formed a team for Girls Adventures in Math (GAIM), a problem-solving competition built around the careers of women in mathematics and science. Katherine coached them.
For Lilly, the competition was almost beside the point. “I feel like relationships can be more important than math,” she said. “My friendships mean everything. If I get something wrong on a problem, I can just try again. [But friendships are] bigger than that.”
“Lily’s really social,” Katherine says. “She’s got a great set of friends in her school. But [now] she has friends who also love math and problem solving. It’s been really fun for her to have those opportunities to engage.”
Similarly for Katherine, the unexpected gift of NMS has been the parent community. “Living in a smaller rural community, you really are carving out your own path,” she says. “To have parents who are going through that similar journey, it’s been really helpful to have those conversations.”
Outside of math, Lilly likes to draw. She taught herself to render Mario Bros. characters Rosalina and Yoshi by watching video tutorials and adapting those techniques. She makes rubber band jewelry, and voices strong opinions about what counts as “cheesy” music.
Lilly also plays soccer as a goaltender. In a recent match, a drenching rainstorm cut visibility down to almost nothing. Lilly still blocked 38 shots. Whether it’s a downpour or a winding path to securing educational resources, it seems that nothing will stop Lilly from achieving greatness.
