As a child, my interest in numbers and mathematics was encouraged by my parents and teachers, and this combination led to success in math. That feeling of success led to increased interest and increased encouragement and more success. I think that learning Math is similar to learning a language — if a person learns the basics and gets some encouragement plus the opportunities to practice and apply the fundamentals and experience success, that person can become more fluent in Math.

 

After majoring in Math in college and teaching high-school Math for four years, I decided to go back to school and study Winemaking. Both at school and working in wineries, I used Math every day. In my current job in wine shipping, I use Math every day. And I have conversations with my co-workers about whether certain numbers "make sense" — every single day. In the economy of the future, there will be fewer manual labor jobs and many more technology jobs. Mathematics is the language in which today's kids need to become more fluent, in order to be ready for those future jobs.

 

My goal with Team Paso is to provide support to the students - and the teachers - of the Paso Robles School District to improve our kids' fluency in Math.