Fort Zumwalt East High School (2024-25)

On the first day of April, Mindset Math’s deputy executive director, Chetachi Ikedinachi, kicked off the first Mindful Mathletes lesson at her high school, Fort Zumwalt East high school! Seven 9th-grade students joined the lesson and look forward to coming back while inviting their friends to join as well!

“One student was very close to coming up with a formula and figured out the sequence, and others were mainly intrigued by the lesson”, Chetachi said. The students even came up with a new and untraditional way of solving the Leo the Kangaroo Problem: “instead of writing down all the possible ways, they rotated the sequences and grouped it…” They also found imaginative ways to sketch the brain network during the paper crumpling activity. Very impressive!

Chetachi is now in conversations with her principal about making Mindful Mathletes a formal academic support program for students who need extra help in math. Even some math teachers are hoping she’ll join their classrooms as a ninth-grade teaching assistant!

What an inspiring start—this is the power of near-peer teaching in action!