TU mathematics and education senior Sara Fee has received a $3,000 scholarship from the American Mathematical Society. The award is made possible through the Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Fund.
Fee is a Tulsa native who discovered her love of teaching at age 11. She credits her high school math teachers for inspiring her to pursue a career in math education.
“I like how math and patterns connect thoughts,” Fee said. “I’m really passionate about education, and I enjoy explaining math and making it fun. With math, everything relates and concepts build upon each other.”
Although TU’s curriculum is challenging, Fee said her courses constantly confirm an ambition to teach students and help others understand the mathematics.
“I know math was the right choice for me, and I often mentor friends who aren’t math majors,” she said.
Following graduation, Fee hopes to teach math at a primary or secondary school. She plans to apply in Oklahoma as well as in other states.
About the AMS scholarship
TU was one of seven universities randomly selected from a pool of AMS institutional members to receive a one-time $3,000 award. The Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Fund is made possible by a bequest from the estate of Waldemar J., Barbara G., and Juliette Trjitzinsky.
Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky was born in Russia in 1901 and received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1926. He taught at several institutions before accepting a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he remained for the rest of his professional life. He showed particular concern for mathematics students and in some cases, made personal efforts to ensure that financial considerations would not hinder their studies. Trjitzinsky was the author of about 60 mathematics papers, primarily on quasi-analytic functions and partial differential equations. He was a member of the AMS for 46 years.