Testimonials
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Project MEGSSS has been serving St. Louis area students for over 30 years. We now have program alumni nominating their children for the program. Here are a few unsolicited testimonials from parents of MEGSSS alumni:
- “Kevin really enjoyed his first 2 years of MEGSSS and thought highly of all his teachers, especially you. I know he learned a lot and that his knowledge and foundation will benefit him in the coming years. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the MEGSSS program. I will continue to recommend it within our school to families seeking math enrichment opportunities for their children.”
- “Thanks to you and the MEGSSS program, Jacob is doing fine so far as a freshman at Lindbergh in a pre-calc class (with his sister, a junior).”
- "Pattie did a great job with her pre-calculus class at Duke, and with the insistence of her pre-calculus teacher at Lindbergh she took AP Calculus as a 9th grader. She had a great teacher, loved the class, and did quite well. Her grades were all A's in the calculus class, and she scored a 5 on the AB Calculus AP Exam. As a tenth grader Pattie was recognized as an AP Scholar with Distinction, and as a Senior was recognized as a National AP Scholar. Most recently she has been notified that she is a National Merit Finalist. She is competing as a college freshman because she skipped a year of high school. MEGSSS was such a good program for Pattie."
Project MEGSSS Alumni Highlight--Here's what a former student has to say about his experiences:
Even after all these years, Youssef Marzouk still fondly recalls afternoons spent doing math problems in the MEGSSS program. Now Professor Marzouk at MIT in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he is using math on a daily basis to model complex systems, furthering our understanding of the physics that governs nature.
Attending MEGSSS more than 20 years ago during middle school, Youssef went on to attend Webster Groves High School. From there, he majored in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, continuing to complete a Ph.D. in the same field. Most recently, he completed his post-doctoral work at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. This brings us back to the present day, where he returned to MIT in January of 2009 as the Boeing Assistant Professor.
Asked about his interest in the math and sciences, Youssef says that he can certainly trace the beginnings to his days at MEGSSS. "MEGSSS was completely different from any other math class I experienced, even throughout high school and college." He emphasizes how the program helped to instill in him an appreciation for rigorous thought and clarity of logic. Even now, as he performs many computer simulations and much number crunching, the underlying algorithms and mathematical models require the kind of precise reasoning that MEGSSS cultivates at an early age.
To those currently attending or considering MEGSSS, Professor Marzouk has some words of advice. "As your education continues, you quickly see how the mathematical maturity you learn in the program coincides with not only your school classes but also the real world. Look at the world around you, and you will see many applications of the mathematics you learn in MEGSSS." For example, the cryptography required to secure the millions of internet transactions every day is grounded in the number theory first year MEGSSS students learn.
As Youssef embarks on a new chapter in his life, he is highly appreciative of the MEGSSS program and the seeds it planted. MEGSSS allowed him to not be "afraid" of math, and that has opened many doors for him.
Visit Professor Youssef's academic webpage: http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/people/marzouk.html. Interview by Andrew Hsiau in association with the Taylor Center for Experiential Learning at Washington University in St. Louis.