Xiaotong Xing, 2025 Texas Voyager cohort
If you were to peer through the window of Xiaotong Xing’s 4th grade classroom, it would look just like any other. Xiaotong herself is a quiet nine-year-old who, much like her friends, enjoys puzzles and mystery novels for young readers, like those from the ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ series.
However, that all changes when the math textbooks come out. While her classmates are working from the traditional 4th-grade curriculum, Xiaotong dives into the Geometry and Intermediate Algebra normally taken by high-school sophomores.
Her friends now take it in stride, but her accelerated studies drew amazed looks when she first started. “They saw the level of math I was doing,” she remembers, “and they started calling me ‘the tenth grader in a fourth grade class.’”
Like a scene in one of her detective stories, it all started with a mysterious letter.
The return address on the curious correspondence read “National Math Stars,” an organization that neither Xiaotong nor her parents had ever heard of. Stranger still, it was an invitation of sorts. Xiaotong’s extraordinary score on statewide math tests had identified her as a student with unique capabilities, and the letter suggested that she be nominated for National Math Stars’ exclusive programs. Ten months later, she learned she’d been accepted.
As unexpected as it all was, the letter came at the perfect time. Xiwen, Xiaotong’s mother, describes it as a period of disappointment and uncertainty. Xiaotong had shown incredible aptitude for mathematics, starting in 1st grade. To fuel her interest, her parents introduced her to the Beast Academy Online curriculum. She absolutely loved it, completing all of Beast Academy (grades 1 through 5) in a single year.
But by third grade, the road had become foggy. Xiwen, herself with an impressive background in finance, knew that academic acceleration requires balance: make something too easy and you see no benefit. But if you push too hard, you risk frustration and detachment. They needed guidance and the right tools to move forward successfully.
Xiaotong’s National Math Stars acceptance cleared the path. The program delivered something that Xiwen had spent more than six months trying to get on her own: a real academic accommodation plan with the school. NMS family advisor Alex worked with the school and district on TEKS alignment, advocating until math self-study during class time became a reality. “Without Alex’s persistent efforts,” Xiwen says, “It would have been extremely difficult for me to advocate effectively on my own.”
Through NMS, Xiaotong gained access to AoPS courses she hadn’t been able to take before, plus seminars covering Graph Theory, Catalan Numbers, and other advanced topics. She now regularly manages three extracurricular courses simultaneously while staying fully on track at school. This summer, she’ll attend Epsilon Camp at the Euclid level, where she will learn alongside peers of similar ability.
National Math Stars’ Welcome Weekend, an in-person event that serves as an introduction for each new cohort, brought its own kind of discovery. Xiaotong describes herself as shy walking in — she was used to her school friends, and this was unfamiliar territory. But something emerged: reassurance. The other kids in that room had similar abilities to hers, and they too had struggled to make the most of them. “I felt more confident,” she says.
NMS has been transformative for Xiaotong. “It gave her a sense of direction,” Xiwen adds, “and allowed her to see a community of peers walking a similar path. From that moment on, she was no longer afraid of moving ahead. We are so grateful for all the support she has received.”
“To this day, we have yet to find her limits. She continues to surprise us!”