UST | Department of Mathematics | CAM

What: Girls Experiencing Mathematics in the Summer The seventh annual St. Thomas summer math camp for high school girls When: June 22 - June 27, 2008 Where: The University of St. Thomas, a private, liberal arts university with a beautiful campus located on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota Who: 16 mathematically talented high school girls Math professors from UST Female student counselors Guest Speakers - female mathematicians from government, research institutions, industry, and academics

Welcome to our website! Please read about our program and share the information with others who may be interested.

Program

• Two enrichment mini-courses introducing mathematics not commonly seen in the high school curriculum.
• Presentations on topics such as Cryptography, Financial Mathematics and Actuarial Science, and Mathematics and Art
• Panel discussion with female mathematicians working at research and teaching institutions and in industry
• Recreational time and field trips (e.g. the Science Museum of Minnesota)
• The participants will stay in a UST residence hall (Murray Hall), accompanied by female student counselors (UST undergraduates.)

Past Courses

Fourier Analysis (2002, 2003, 2004) This course will introduce in an easy, intuitive form the idea of decomposing a function into frequencies and show some examples of practical applications of such decompositions. The emphasis will be on hands on experience. We will play with digital images and sound in a computer classroom.

Geometry (2005) Going ‘Round in Circles: Circles provide a unifying theme for a study of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries. Many opportunities for student investigation will be possible. Extensive use of the Geometer’s Sketchpad is expected. Time will be devoted to this in four parts. 1) Euclidean geometry of the circle. 2) Studies in mutual tangency of congruent circles. 3) Circles on the sphere and a new geometry. 4) Circles and a model of non-Euclidean geometry (hyperbolic).

Graph Theory and Matrices (2003, 2004, 2006)We will cover special applications of linear algebra. Incidence matrices will be used to introduce matrix analysis of graphs; we will study how matrix operations are related to interesting properties of the graphs. Once matrices and matrix multiplication have been introduced, some ideas of computer graphics will be explored. The students will finish the week by using basic linear transformations to make their own “mini” movies with Mathematica or Matlab.

Instructors

Dr. Radka Turcajova was a GEMS Camp 2002 and 2004  instructor.	Dr. Lisa Rezac was a GEMS Camp 2002, 2003, and 2005 instructor.

Counselors

Katie Joyce 2002: Katie Joyce and Jaclyn Karlen 2003: Tenzin Tsepak and Amy Borstad 2004: Shanon McIntyre and Kristin Engling.	Jaclyn Karlen 2005: Nicole Lanie and Amanda (Abress) 2006: Jena Greig and Jenny Olin 2007 and 2008: Fiona Lodge and Molly Leonard

Guest Speakers

• 2002 Dr. Theresa Jorgensen, National Security Agency
• 2003 Dr. Linda Keen, past president of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)
• 2004 Theresa Laurent, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Ms. Laurent discussed pharmocokinetics (the study of how drugs move through the body) and related mathematical models.
• 2005 Christine Berger, UST alumnus, Policy Analyst, and Director of Governmental Affairs for the Southern Twin Cities Association of REALTORS®. Christine discussed her current job as a lobbyist at the Minnesota legislature, and presented the mathematical model that is used by the state of Minnesota in calculating the funding that will be apportioned to different cities. The GEMS campers broke into two groups: metro and outstate, and then presented their own arguments for "better" mathematical models.
• Dr. Melissa Loe, UST
• Dr. Heekyung Youn, UST
• Dr. Cheri Shakiban, UST
  Career Panelists In addition to the guest speakers listed above, we have been very lucky to have wonderful panelists each year for our career panel and banquet.

  2002 Panelists:

• Anne Cohen (M.B.A. in Strategic Management, instructor in the College of Business at UST, and President of Delta Designs),
• Elizabeth Hansen (FCAS, MAAA, managing director with Guy Carpenter & Company),
• Susan Rani (president and founder of Rani Engineering Inc.),
• Theresa Jorgensen (mathematician with the National Security Agency).

  2003 Panelists:

• Patricia Nelson (Assistant Professor of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse),
• Amy Bouska (MAAA, Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and Principal and Consulting Actuary with Tillinghast - Towers Perrin),
• Linda Keen (Professor of Mathematics - Lehman College, past president of the Association for Women in Mathematics),
• Tracy Bibelnieks (Assistant Professor of Mathematics - Augsburg College, previously a mathematician in the Global Services Consulting group at IBM).

  2004 Panelists:

• Petra Noble (Geographic Information Systems Specialist, University of Minnesota),
• Janet Nelson (Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, Catlin Group),
• Theresa Laurent (Assistant Professor of Mathmeatics, St. Louis College of Pharmacy), and
• Katie Joyce (2002 GEMS Camp counselor and Secondary Mathematics Teacher)

  2005 Panelists:

• Julie Joyce (Associate of the Casualty Actuary Society, lead actuary in the Entertainment Unit of St. Paul Travelers),
• Tanya MacGregor (IS manager in the Enterprise Programs division of St. Paul Travelers),
• Kelly Kanz (mechanical engineer at Lockheed Martin),
• Christine Berger (Governmental Affairs Director of the Southern Twin Cities Association of REALTORS)

Cost

Update April 2, 2008: Additional funds have been provided by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas to reduce the cost of the camp to $330. This includes all camp costs except travel to and from St. Thomas.   

Sponsors

If you are interested in sponsoring this program and helping to establish a scholarship fund for the camp, please e-mail Lisa Rezac: lmrezac@stthomas.edu

Our past sponsors include:

• The Mathematical Association of America,
• the Tensor Foundation,
• the UST Center for Applied Mathematics,
• the UST Department of Mathematics
• the University of St. Thomas,
• the UST College of Arts and Sciences,
• and the UST Office of Admissions.

  Special thanks to

• the St. Paul Travelers company for their generous scholarships and volunteer speakers.

Applications

Our GEMS 2008 is filled, but we encourage you to send your name to be included on the mailing list for 2009. When our 2009 application process opens, interested girls should submit:
• the completed application form
• a current transcript
• a one-page statement describing themselves, their math background, their plans for for the future, and how they could contribute to and benefit from the UST GEMS Camp.

They should also ask one of their math teachers to write and send

• a letter of recommendation (link to cover sheet below)
The letter should be sent directly by the recommender. The applicant should fill in the cover sheet for the recommendation letter (link below) and give it to the recommender. The cover sheet needs to be enclosed with the recommender's letter.

Forms

You can download the forms in the pdf format here:

• application form
• cover sheet for recommendation letter
To be able to view and print out the forms you need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Most computers have it installed. If yours does not have it installed, you can download it (free) from adobe.com.
If you are not able to download and print out the forms, please contact us and we will mail or fax them to you.

Applications and letters of recommendation should be mailed to:

Dr. Lisa Rezac, University of St. Thomas
Department of Mathematics, GEMS Camp
Mail OSS 201
2115 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105-1079

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Contact Information

Last updated: 6/16/2008