Zayd Patel has a confession to make.
“Up until fifth grade, I totally hated math, despised it,” he said.
But Patel, now an 18-year-old senior at The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland, underwent a math conversion in middle school, thanks to his sixth-grade teacher who got him interested in the subject, and another teacher who introduced him to the MATHCOUNTS program, which sharpens students’ math skills and sponsors math competitions.
“I’m someone who loves math now,” said Patel.
The student has parlayed his love for math into volunteering for the past three years at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy in Washington, D.C., teaching math to middle school students after school one day a week.
On Thursday afternoons after school, his father, Sameer Patel, drives him from his Catholic school in suburban Maryland that is sponsored by the Prelature of Opus Dei, and takes him to St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy, located in the center city of the nation’s capital. St. Francis Xavier is one of four Catholic elementary schools in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s Consortium of Catholic Academies.
In May, Zayd Patel was interviewed about his volunteer service, just before he began teaching math that afternoon for an hour and 15 minutes to 14 middle school students in a St. Francis Xavier classroom.
He explained that after participating in MATHCOUNTS, he found out about a scholarship opportunity to start teaching that math program at a school. He connected with St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy through the Youth Leadership Foundation, which provides mentoring opportunities for youth at schools in Washington.
Patel began teaching the MATHCOUNTS program to St. Francis Xavier students in the fall of 2022. He heard that coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, students in the nation’s schools were struggling with math.
The high school student began teaching the St. Francis Xavier fifth through eighth graders fundamental math skills to apply to problems and give them a strong foundation in math, and gear them up toward participating in the annual MATHCOUNTS competition held each February.
Using the different math strategies from MATHCOUNTS, the students he was teaching made substantial progress from week to week, he said. Patel started teaching a few students in the after-school program, and eventually he was teaching a full classroom of middle schoolers.
Math, Patel said, “is supposed to be more fun and thought provoking than just following rules.” And he said math also “improves students’ critical thinking abilities and problem solving.”
The MATHCOUNTS program gives middle school students access to math subjects like algebra, geometry and basic probability that they usually wouldn’t learn until high school, he said.
Describing how he learned to love math as a middle schooler, Patel said, “Becoming better at math and having success at that bled into other areas of academic life. It gave me confidence and also helped me be a better thinker, which applies to all areas of academics. I think critical thinking in math is a foundation for students’ success.”
At The Heights School, Patel has served as the captain of the debate team and as president of the Harmony Club that promotes understanding on social and racial issues. In college, he hopes to study classics and math. Two of his brothers also attend The Heights School. Rayn Patel, now a sophomore there, is a nationally ranked youth fencer. Raif Patel is a sixth grader there. Their 5-year-old sister Zelie is homeschooled by their mother, Zeena Patel, and their father, Sameer Patel, runs the Bristow Montessori School in Virgina. Their family lives in Bethesda, Maryland, where they are members of the Church of the Little Flower.
As Zayd Patel taught the St. Francis Xavier middle schoolers on a Wednesday afternoon in May, they listened intently as he stood in front of the classroom and went over problems on a Smart Board. He had a natural rapport with the students and kept order in the classroom in a gentle way.
“This is how we do a quadratic equation,” he said at one point. Later, he walked around the classroom, stopping to see how each student was doing, reviewing their work and helping them if they needed it.
Afterward, St. Francis Xavier students in interviews said they enjoyed Patel’s after-school math sessions.
“It (the MATHCOUNTS program) helps us to flourish in math… It helps us discover what we wouldn’t be able to do with conventional teaching,” said Frederick Emodi, then an eighth grader.
Coriana Dobson, then a seventh grader at St. Francis Xavier, said, “I’m learning new stuff, and it’s really fun… My grades are better than last year.”
She added that math “is fun, and it can be really useful in life.”
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy educators expressed appreciation for Patel’s volunteer work with their students, and praised the MATHCOUNTS program.
“I love that it challenges our students who already excel at math. This is an opportunity to take their skills to the next level,” said Dr. Nicole Johnson, the school’s counselor.
Patel’s service to their students “is amazing,” she said, noting the time it takes for him to travel to the school each week, and how he stays afterward to talk with students about getting ready for high school and thinking about college. “He is incredibly dedicated to seeing their potential and helping to boost that.”
Denise Parker, the middle school math teacher at St. Francis Xavier, also praised Patel and the MATHCOUNTS program.
“It’s wonderful. It’s a way to challenge our high achievers. I just like how Zayd has come in and motivated them, to get them ready for (math) competitions… I think this really prepares them for how they will compete in high school,” Parker said, adding, “It definitely helps with those critical thinking and analytical skills.”
Reflecting on Patel’s work in teaching the MATHCOUNTS program to students and sharpening their skills in preparation for math competitions, Parker said, “This is a great opportunity for them to shine and to know their hard work and dedication to learning is being recognized.”
The St. Francis Xavier math teacher noted, “We’re definitely seeing the results in their test scores,” and she said the math they are learning will give them the opportunity to get into honors and Advanced Placement courses in high school.
Harold Thomas, the principal of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy, called Patel an inspiration and a role model to the middle school students. “He’s also a normal kid,” and has been an approachable mentor to the students, staying afterward to talk with them, the principal said.
“He’s one of the finest young men that I’ve ever seen,” Thomas said. “Our kids think he’s the coolest. He can relate to each and every one of them.”
The principal then asked, “How many middle school kids would enjoy doing math after school?” Answering his question, Thomas said the St. Francis Xavier students totally look forward to Patel and the math program he is teaching them.
After teaching math to the St. Francis Xavier students that afternoon this spring, Patel and the students smiled and posed for a group photo. Some of the middle schoolers wore MATHCOUNTS hoodies. Behind them displayed on the classroom wall were small signs with messages including “Be the Best You Can Be,” and “Practice, Practice” and “Study Hard” and “Believe.”
In a later interview, Zayd Patel said, “While what inspired me to start was a hope to impact students, (and) what has kept me coming back for three years is the steady realization of that dream.”
Patel said the students’ statistical results, including a 30% increase in math scores, has been gratifying, but “the week-to-week process is more so. Every week I get to build and gradually shape the way my students approach math… As they start to experience success throughout the year, students start to see math as something they want to excel at rather than something forced upon them.”
Like it once did for Patel, that experience adds up to students learning to love math and benefitting from the critical thinking and problem solving skills they gain along the way, in preparation for tackling other subjects in high school and college and in life.
