FLINT, MI – 2024 Miss USA pageant winner, U.S. Army First Lieutenant, and Okemos native Alma Cooper spoke to Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD) students on Monday about her passion for mathematics.
Cooper graduated from West Point where she studied mathematics and was ranked 44th of the 1,000 students in her graduating class.
“It wasn’t just about doing the math at that point. There was service tied to it,” Cooper told students during the Feb. 3 event at the University of Michigan-Flint.
After graduating from West Point, Cooper began attending graduate school at Stanford University where she continues to study mathematics, and she explained that she still constantly uses math in her daily life.
“For me, there’s so many life lessons that have been tied to school and academics and specificity mathematics because it pushes you to problem solve at every turn,” said Cooper, who also works with Food Rescue and Feeding America as well as an organization supporting children with cleft palates. “I told myself this thing that I’m really passionate about, telling a story through numbers.
“It gets me up in the morning, and it doesn’t feel like work.”
Monday’s event was held through a partnership between UM-Flint and the GISD as part of a mathematics program funded by the Michigan Department of Education.
The grant for the program was written by GISD math specialist Amber Zavicar.
“Maybe yesterday, maybe six months ago, a career, a future using mathematics seem so far out of reach,” Zavicar said. “Our hope is that today and every day going forward, it feels a little bit more possible for you.”
UM-Flint math professor Cameron McLeman said the university has been expanding its data science programs as it works to better bridge the gap between high school and college-level courses.
Additionally, McLeman announced UM-Flint is offering every student who participated in Monday’s event a scholarship allowing them to take the university’s new data science course for free.
“One of the things I want to stress about this is that every, every business, every company, every community group has more data than they know what to do with,” McLeman said. “And they are hiring all over the place people who are interested in that field that have data science skills, and you have picked up a lot of those skills as you go.”
Among those students in the crowd on Monday was Goodrich High School junior Ryder Allen.
Allen said he enjoys studying data science more than the average math course, noting he hopes the knowledge gained from courses like this prepare him for a career as an electrician.
“I’m involving coding. I’m involving different things, so I’m actually using it in real life,” Allen said. “That will help me within my long run.”
Goodrich High School senior Maxwell Macklem liked hearing about Cooper’s personal journey and how she applies data science in her everyday life.
Macklem hopes to apply some of what Cooper discussed to his own life, particularly motivational speaker and former U.S. Navy Seal David Goggins’ “40% rule” which he said “really popped out” to him.
“The average person walking on Earth only achieves about 40% of their max potential,” Cooper said. “I chose and continue to choose to live in that 60% because that’s where the real change is made.”
Swartz Creek High School junior Lena Jones said she related to much of what Cooper had to say and noted the data science course she’s been taking has been much more enjoyable than other math classes she’s had in the past.
“A lot of people like me who struggle with math itself, the data science class really helps me,” Jones said.
Students were given the chance to be photographed with Cooper and split into breakout sessions to learn about different data science topics.
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