The Owlfred Chronicles

Who doesn’t like a good story?  And who doesn’t believe fairy tales can come true?  At OpenStudy we see this all the time.  So our New Year Resolutions for 2012 was to share some of the stories of our users.  If you have an OpenStudy story you’d like to share, well, call me.  Here is Myininaya’s story, in her own words.  Myininaya is an all powerful moderator, level 97, with hundreds of students.  Who is she?  Read on.

My Math Journey

I have had a long math journey from a remedial math course in a community college to teaching math in a small college in Arkansas and to my current role as user/moderator on OpenStudy, helping hundreds of people learn math.  I am both a helper on OpenStudy and a learner myself.  Here is my story.

I started with low ACT scores which led me to remedial math.  Actually, the weird thing was math was my favorite subject so this score caused me great disappointment in myself.  Then I found an awesome math teacher; and I took him for every single math class in the community college.  He made me feel like math was my favorite subject again!  I was so excited.  I knew math was hot to me.

Then I transferred to a university and was scared of math again.  I tried switching majors from math to accounting, but after taking the most boring class called economics, I switched back to my dear friend, math.  I got to take my favorite teacher again for business calculus (he was teaching part time at the university).  One more he gave me hope and so I stuck with math and completed my BS in math, and then a MS!

My math teacher played such an important role in my life, that I decided to become a math teacher. While doing that I am also working towards a PhD in cryptography.  So my learning journey continues and now on my weird and wonderful path, there is a shining goal.

I use OpenStudy because it is a great way to keep practicing math, learn new things, and help people.  I learn more math from others and I learn about teaching by helping learners of all ages, backgrounds and cultures.  I learn patience and find new ways of explaining things.  Math is a huge subject.  You can never stop learning it.    And often you need a good teacher who believes in you.  There are some great helpers on this site like JamesJ, Zarkon, Satellite73, turingtest, and many, many others (Please forgive me if I have not mentioned you by name).   What is wonderful is that you can come to OpenStudy really wanting to learn, and you will find someone who will encourage you and help you.  And, if you are good in math, spend some time here and help some one.  You may be able to help them on their weird and wonderful learning journey.

My message to people learning math everywhere: There should be no excuses.  Finish college and don’t complain. Be responsible and yes, females can do math!