Concordia senior Rachel is our first student to complete all of the courses in a “math minor” (accredited by Concordia University Nebraska) by taking six university math courses: Calculus I (AB) Calculus II (BC), Multivariate Calculus, Linear Algebra, (AP) Statistics, (AP) Computer Science. 

Upon successful completion of these courses, which is anticipated at the end of this school year, she will receive this comment added to her university transcript: "Student has completed or exceeded the required number of math credit hours for a minor in mathematics.”

The Thunder Bolt spoke with Rachel about her achievement.

How did you decide to earn a math minor?

So It was very unexpected. I actually didn’t know I was going to get it! As a learner, I have this discipline to not stop learning something that I really like. So I just wanted to continue those courses that I’m interested in until I’m really satisfied.

Last year, when I took the AP Calculus classes, Mr. Whitehead encouraged me to take a year of enrollment in calculus courses from Concordia University Nebraska. So after that, I just decided to do it, for both AB and BC courses. And after finishing those courses, I’m now taking Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra dual enrollment again, and then AP Computer Science, which I became interested in because of data science. Then, as I decided to take those courses, Mr. Whitehead said: “You’re going to get a math minor.

What was it about Data Science that made you interested in Computer Science?

When I took the Big Data course as a junior and did a research paper on it, I realized that there were some limitations on collecting those data sets. So I thought that maybe learning computer science and those programming languages might be necessary for me to do a more in-depth analysis in my next projects. So I decided to take computer science, which taught me Java language, and then I also expanded myself to learn Python language through Big Data Applied Learning (Big Data level 2).

What is your next plan after you finish these courses and graduate?

I would like to apply those mathematical skills and knowledge into some research or other STEM fields like health, informatics or forensic sciences. I just want to keep learning after finishing these courses.

I’m looking at various universities, but the one thing I’m really pursuing now is Data Science, I would like to major in Data Science and still learn math and computer science together.

I don’t have a specific name for the career that I want. If I learn those meaningful data analytics skills, then I really want to apply them to figure out some trends or some social problems and find some solutions to those problems in society.

Would you recommend getting a Math Minor to others?

Yeah, I think it’s really good. Even though you only officially get a Math Minor after your university graduation, I think those who really want to learn something and challenge themselves, then they should try and get a Math Minor - I really recommend it.