Math Whizzes Place—and a Perfect Score for Nam
In November, eight of faculty member Jason Bershatsky’s Math Club students divided into two teams of four and traveled to the Ninth Annual Johns Hopkins Math Tournament to take the competition by storm.

“My goal is to get as much participation in off-campus competitions as possible,” Bershatsky says. “Students who practice this type of thinking competitively often come back more successful in the classroom.”

After battling it out with more than 100 students from Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey, Team A (Mary Chen, Nathan Stanford, Ya Gao, and Jeff Chung) placed second in two competitions, and Team B (Jae Nam, Laurel Schaefer, Vincent Ou Yang, and Michelle Kim) performed equally well. Lower-middler Jae Nam placed first in the algebra competition with a perfect score, and upper-middler Laurel Schaefer placed second in the combinatorics competition.

Overall, Mercersburg’s teams captured fourth and fifth places out of 22 teams. “Participation levels say that the kids are interested in these contests,” says Bershatsky. “They have a lot of fun doing it.”