![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
Up until 2026, the National Honors, Thespian Honors, French Honors, and Tri-M Music Honors Societies were the only honors organizations Silver Creek offered. This year, one new society was added to the school’s list: Math Honors Society, or Mu Alpha Theta. The induction ceremony occurred on 18 February.
Seven people are responsible for Silver Creek joining Mu Alpha Theta: Cole Sheppard, Max Vandershaaf, Violet Brinkerhoff, Cher Lim, Clive Besen, Bradford Olivier, and Grayden Rasmussen. All of these students are part of Math Club, which meets every Friday in Amanda Menihan’s room, C103.
Beyond the addition of a new tassel for graduating seniors, the goal of this society is to create a space where people can talk about math with other students who are interested in the subject, which also provides opportunities for volunteering. Although Math Club already has a group of students who are interested in math and love to talk about it, Math Honor Society hopes to bring people into that community and reward them for helping out other students with math.
“The whole goal in Math Club is pulling up with an interesting problem and talking about it,” Sheppard said. “I hope that in math Honor Society, we can do that with more people. And there’s more focus on just enjoying math, I’m loving that.”
One of the concerns for Math Honors Society, however, is that the increase in people that are just interested in the tassel will reduce the focus on conversations about math.
“Because of our volunteer hours, [members] have to be helping students with math, or creating Pi Day, doing things that are very math related,” Amanda Menihan, the ambassador for Math Club and Math Honors Society, said. “I think that you wouldn’t really want to tutor if you’re not very passionate about it.”
Requirements to be in Math Honors Society, like being an upperclassman, taking either AP Statistics or AP Pre-Calculus, and the volunteer hours will hopefully encourage members to be involved in math-based conversations.
Mason Freeman, a member of Math Honors Society, is excited to be involved in the math community at Silver Creek.
“I’m planning on majoring in math,” Freeman said. “Math is a major part of my time at Silver Creek, and just education in general … so [Math Honors Society] is something extra to do that connects to math at Silver Creek … It’s cool to have something super focused on something that matters a lot to me.”
Another opportunity that the Math Honors Society seeks to offer to students is involvement in math competitions. The two main competitions are American Math Competition (AMC), which takes place in December for students all across the United States, and a competition hosted by University of Northern Colorado (UNC).
Max Vandershaaf is the president of Math Honors Society, and he hopes to encourage students to get involved with math opportunities such as these in the future.
“Our core message [is] math is for everybody,” Vandershaaf said. “People are always welcome to join Math Club on Fridays, even if you’re not in the Honor Society. Get involved with the school and get involved with math.”
