Inara Zoe Cadahing, 2024 Texas cohort
You’d be hard-pressed to find a 10-year-old who can break a one-inch-thick board with a spinning back kick. But one who’s also a math wizard? We’re talking about a one-in-a-million kid.
For Inara Zoe Cadahing (Zoe), that’s pretty much a typical day. She’s already pushing past conventional expectations in both academics and extracurriculars. Whether she’s delivering killer kicks in Hapkido, singing, drawing, or building self-driving robots, Zoe approaches every challenge with precision, energy, and deep curiosity.
Having just finished fourth grade, Zoe already has math skills at the algebra level. Next year, she’ll skip fifth-grade math entirely – an acceleration coordinated by her school district with help from National Math Stars. For other fifth-grade experiences, however, Zoe and her family have made the intentional choice to keep her with her age peers. “She’s not just academically advanced,” says her mom, Janice. “She’s a full person with wide-ranging interests – and we want her to enjoy being a kid, too.”
Those wide-ranging interests make Zoe stand out. When she’s not studying or practicing martial arts, she’s creating animations using the FlipaClip app, creating short movies with her friends, or programming miniature machines with Micro:bits. One of her latest projects is a LEGO-based self-driving minibot. “She just gets an idea and runs with it,” says her dad, Ian.
Zoe’s early talents emerged almost as soon as she could talk. She began recognizing letters and numbers before age two, often flipping through her parents’ work-related documents with surprising comprehension. The first full book she read came from Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series. While these are starter books for many kids, Zoe read it independently when she was just three years old.
In the years since, reading has been an important part of Zoe’s daily life. Outside of her regular favorite science comic books and fantasy novel series, she devours books from the yearly Texas Bluebonnet Awards list throughout the school year.
Despite Zoe’s clear natural abilities, enrichment opportunities haven’t always been easily accessible. As immigrants, Zoe’s parents have had to navigate the U.S. education system with no prior experience and limited resources. “We didn’t really know what was available,” Janice explains. “And a lot of the programs we did find were just too expensive.”
That changed when they connected with National Math Stars.
Through NMS, Zoe has found both academic rigor and a supportive community of peers who understand and challenge her. She attended the Welcome Weekend event, where she quickly bonded with other gifted students and discovered new areas of exploration – from advanced mathematics to robotics and 3D printing. This summer, she attended Campersand, a residential STEM camp in New Mexico, diving into topics like Recurrence, Tensegrity, and Competition Geometry.
The impact has gone beyond the classroom. “We’ve met other families like ours,” Ian says. “It helps to know we’re not alone in trying to support her.” National Math Stars has also played a critical role in helping the family advocate for Zoe’s academic needs, working with her school district to craft an acceleration plan that fits her unique strengths as well as her social goals.
As a black belt candidate in Hapkido, Zoe understands the importance of balance, resilience, and discipline – skills that also show up in her approach to learning. Whether she’s debugging code, mastering math concepts, or singing in the school choir, she gives each pursuit her full attention. And she’s only just getting started.
“Zoe has always been self-motivated,” Janice says. “But National Math Stars gave us the roadmap – and the community – to help her grow.”
From martial arts to math mastery, Zoe’s just getting started. And who knows? Someday, if you run across a robot with a friendly demeanor and a black belt in Hapkido, you can bet that Zoe’s behind it.
