Tyler Gray, a former student participant of the Mathematical Sciences Governor’s Institute was featured in an article on July 7 in The Burlington Free Press (BFP) by David Goodman entitled, “Vermont Lives: Kingdom Teen a farmer, student, even genuis.”  Tyler served as a junior counselor during the Governor’s Institute of Vermont summer program in mathematical sciences at the University of Vermont.  Tyler was a student participant in this Institute following his freshman year where he met Chris Danforth, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.  Dr. Danforth is quoted in the BFP as seeing Tyler as ‘somebody who understands complicated ideas the first time you offer them to them with little background explanation. ” 

Tyler told the BFP reporter during this year’s GIV Mathematics Institute that all of the doors that have opened to him originated with his participation in the GIV Mathematics Institute.  He also stated:  “I come from a small kind of secluded area in the corner of Vermont.  GIV was my first opportunity in advanced math.  It has opened a whole new set of opportunities and introduced me to a whole new community.  Because of GIV I’ve learned lots, met lots of people, and learned how you go forward in math.”  

This year’s Institute held June 17-22, 2012, was overseen by Sheila Weaver and Jeff Dinitz, co-leaders of the GIV Mathematical Sciences Institute as well as faculty within the UVM Department of Mathematics and Statistics.  After three years attending the Institute, Weaver and Dinitz were pleased to have Tyler serve in the role of Junior Counselor this year.  

"It's wonderful to have Tyler as part of the Vermont mathematics community; it was great to see him pass the torch to the next round of talented young mathematicians," said Weaver.

The GIV Mathematical Sciences Institute is a weeklong festival of mathematics, featuring theoretical and real-world  applications that includes advanced lectures by renowned mathematicians and scientists. Student participants take on world-class mathematical challenges, including mind puzzles that keep mathematicians awake at night!  In addition to math, participants went on field trips, played games, and enjoyed a cookout at North Beach.

Each year the Vermont GIV Institutes offer high school students a wide range of enrichment learning opportunities at colleges and universities throughout Vermont. In addition to the UVM CEMS Mathematical Sciences Institute, GIV offers: Asian Cultures (UVM), Arts (Castleton), Current Issues & Youth Activism (Brattleboro ), Engineering (UVM CEMS), Environmental Science & Technology (UVM),  Information Technology (Champlain College), and Winter Weekend (held every February to provide a weekend of fun activities related to individual Institutes for students to sample for the upcoming year).

For more information on all of the programs offered by the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont visit: www.giv.org

To read the BFP article visit:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201207070600/LIVING20/307070001&nclick_check=1