Ria presents a project about ants
Ria Xu, 2023 pilot cohort
Ria has a deep appreciation for ants. She’s amazed by their social structures, which resemble humans’ in many ways. She’s fascinated by their ability to communicate through touch and pheromone production. She’d love to have an ant farm of her own, “but there never seem to be any queen ants around here,” she laments.
There’s another reason Ria may have an affinity for ants: their work ethic. At ten years old, Ria is always hard at work herself. Primarily homeschooled by her mother Xu at their home in San Jose, she also attends classes at a local charter school, and is working her way through a set of high-school equivalent courses in Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Precalculus.
“She’s technically a fifth grader by age, she’s only ten,” explains Ambika Dani, NMS’s Head of Programs and Ria’s advisor. “Kids take Precalculus anywhere from ninth through eleventh grade in most schools. So, she’s at a high school level in terms of math.“
In her spare time (though it’s hard to imagine how she has any) Ria dabbles in video game development. “When I met her last year, she was nine and had already done a year of coding in Java,” Ambika recalls. “So she was coding at a middle/high school level even as a nine-year-old, which is pretty phenomenal.”
How does one little girl get access to so many accelerated programs and educational opportunities? The answer is simple: support.
Like all NMS parents, Xu is intensely dedicated to furthering her daughter’s education in any way she can. A Chinese immigrant who came to the US to earn a Master’s degree, Xu developed a talent for cultivating opportunities. It’s a skill she now puts to use on her daughter’s behalf. Ambika is impressed with how Xu keeps herself plugged into multiple forums and groups, continually navigating next steps for Ria. “She’s often teaching me about opportunities that even I didn’t know. Her story really highlights a parent who is a huge advocate and really takes advantage of NMS’s resources.”
This close parent/NMS partnership helps Ria immensely. Finding great courses is one thing, but participation requires resources that families like Ria’s don’t always have. Xu credits National Math Stars with her daughter’s ability to enroll in these various programs: “They give us options and resources [for] where to go – like what camp we can sign up for. She is interested in biology [so] they recommended the DNA class. Basically, they give us more resources and more advice.”
Between her innate talents, her mother’s tenacity, and the support she gets from National Math Stars, Ria can explore any math or science-related interest she develops. Right now, machine learning algorithms and AI systems like ChatGPT have caught her attention. Video game development is also on the table, as is pediatric dermatology, which was inspired by treatments her six-year-old brother has undergone.
And of course, there’s entomology, because of the ants. “They’re just really interesting!” she says.
Ria participates in a math mentoring session