Empowering Futures

By Elle Wilcox '26, March 18, 2024

Women in Math Day welcomes inquiring minds to IC.

The Women in Math Day panel discussion brought five professionally accomplished women together to share their stories.

Photo by Elle Wilcox '26

At the start of Women’s History Month, the Ithaca College Department of Mathematics hosted the 7th annual “IC Women in Math Day” event to help inspire the next generation of great mathematical minds.

The event, designed for girls in grades 7-12, welcomed attendees and their families to participate in a hands-on math workshop, speak and enjoy lunch with current Ithaca College math majors, and hear from a panel of women with careers in various mathematical fields.

Organized by associate professors of mathematics Ted Galanthay and Megan Martinez, the event has been a tradition since 2018 thanks to a Tensor Women in Mathematics grant from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

“We see this event as a way to say, ‘Hey, here's some cool stuff about math, here are women who have careers that are related to math, and here are some of our female students who major in math. Let’s just make the female contingent of mathematics physical.’”

Megan Martinez, associate professor of mathematics

“As you do math, and you get higher and higher in the world, what tends to happen is the ratio between men and women, it gets more and more imbalanced,” said Martinez. “We see this event as a way to say, ‘Hey, here's some cool stuff about math, here are women who have careers that are related to math, and here are some of our female students who major in math. Let’s just make the female contingent of mathematics physical.’”

Participants were welcomed in person to this year’s event for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and started off the day with a presentation on game theory from Martinez. Students, parents, and panelists alike participated in the hands-on activity that used poker chips and playing tic-tac-toe to symbolize and better explain the theory.

Megan Martinez, associate professor of mathematics, discusses game theory with two attendees. (Photo by Elle Wilcox '26)

“I learned that a lot of games have ways to win based on math,” said Amelia Grimshaw, a high school student from Syracuse. “There are algorithms you can follow to win a game like tic-tac-toe.”

After the presentation, participants enjoyed lunch alongside current IC female math students followed by a career panel Q&A.

Marguerite Davis ’18, an instructor at the “Mathnasium” in Rochester, spoke about her experience as a student and how it inspired her to give back.

“I always loved when we had people come in and talk about what they did; it really had an impact on me. So then coming here made total sense,” she said. “I love that I can now return the favor and hopefully inspire somebody like others have inspired me.”

Deborah Hoover, who is a vice president and the Small Business Lending Manager at Tompkins Community Bank, spoke about excelling at math from a young age and her journey of pursuing a career in banking and working her way up from a teller to a small business lender over 22 years.

“I took a 10-year maternity leave and started back in banking. We had an education assistance program, so I took advantage of that and went back to TC3,” she said. “Through all of that, math has been a priority to me.”

“Being able to hear from so many women in a space like this just felt really reassuring that STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathetmatics] is the right place for me and I do have a place in STEM.”

Attendee Amelia Grimshaw

Cassandra Valenti, an Ithaca High School math teacher with 17 years of experience, discussed her passion for spreading a love for math.

“I have always loved math and I've always loved teaching, so I started off teaching my Cabbage Patch dolls and my siblings, and I just always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “I love spreading the love for math to young minds. Math is the coolest because it applies to absolutely everything we do because it helps us become better thinkers.”

“I was really inspired,” said Grimshaw after hearing the panelists speak. “Being able to hear from so many women in a space like this just felt really reassuring that STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathetmatics] is the right place for me and I do have a place in STEM.”

“That's mostly the point of the day,” said Martinez. “Get out. Do cool math stuff. Talk about careers and let us maybe match things you might want to study at college. But the underlying of that all is just a large representation of women.”