Journey math team faces demanding, rewarding time at Vestavia Hills

MADISON – Journey Middle School Math Team claimed awards against 120 students in Division 1, Large-School Category at the Vestavia Hills High School Math Competition.

“My seventh-grade team came in first place at Vestavia Hills on Dec. 7,” Mrinal Joshi said. At Journey, Joshi is Mathematics Department Head. She holds the National Certificate for STEM Teaching.

“Vestavia is one of the toughest competitions. We prepared by solving and practicing the older Vestavia tests in the classroom. Of course, we do a LOT of problem solving and higher-level math in a math team classroom,” Joshi said.

Students know the material to practice and develop skills because Joshi teaches the information that the tournament will cover. “A math team requires students to be self-motivated and competitive, plus to take responsibility of furthering their own learning away from the classroom setting, too,” she said.

“We just don’t have time for enough practice only in the classroom,” Joshi said. “Students need to have the will and determination to give their personal time, too, to enhance their learning.”

Other middle schools in the tournament included Discovery, Pizitz, Bumpus, Berry, Homewood, Simmons, Oak Mountain, Hueytown, Austin and Alabama School of Fine Arts.

Students in grades 6-8 participate in Journey Math Team:

• Sixth grade — Lilia Baker, Mathieu Bruer, Thomas Francis, Oliver Hanson, Harleigh Henderson, John Kawamoto, Channing Meyer, Dheeren Pammina, Garen Parker, Astha Pradhan, Allison Tubbs and Peter Zhao.

• Seventh grade — Ananya Bhovi, IkeOluwanimi Farounbi, Minah Ha, Rachel Harris, Caden Howard, Antonio Hughes, Esteban Jerez, Kushal Patel, Vansh Patel, Mason Park, Marlon Ross, Rohan Sahoo, Wylie Savage, Ivy Zhang and Kylie Zou.

• Eighth grade — Aryana Baria, Charvisri Donthula, Deidra Dorcoo, Grace Mehta, Tran Ngo, Venkata Samiraju (Praba), Emily Steverson and Austin Zhu.

Journey’s top four seventh- graders, who won individual trophies, commented about the tourney: • Esteban Jerez — “I love the challenge of the math problems at Vestavia.” Jerez was seventh grade’s first-place winner in Individual Awards.

• Kylie Zou — “It was really challenging to prepare for Vestavia Hills. We got to learn from our mistakes.”

• Rohan Sahoo – Agreeing with Zou about the tourney’s difficulty, Sahoo said, “Vestavia is one of the hardest competitions.”

• Mason Park — “It thrills me to solve the problems and get the correct solutions.”

To award team trophies, officials take the top four written-test scores and the four ciphering scores.

In team awards at Vestavia Hills, Journey’s seventh-graders captured first place. The sixth- and eighth-grade students both took fourth place.

The top 10 students overall per grade level receive Individual Awards:

• Seventh grade competed against 120 students in their category — Esteban Jerez, first place; Kylie Zou, fourth; Rohan Sahoo, sixth; and Mason Park, 14th place, serving as the fourth student whose score counted towards team trophy.

• Sixth grade competed against 154 students in their category: Dheeren Pammina, 11th place, Ally Tubbs, 12th place; John Kawamoto, 13th place; and Garen Parker, fourth score for team trophy.

All students completed a one-hour written test with 25 multiple-choice questions and three or more tiebreakers. Each correct answer earns the number of questions answered correctly times 4. Each incorrect answer docks a point. A blank answer doesn’t receive a penalty. However, the more answers correct, the better chances for a higher score to win.

Sixth-graders worked in pre-algebra and algebra I ciphering and received four sets of five problems. They had six minutes to complete each page. Each correct answer earned five points; each incorrect or missing answer received zero points. The top four ciphering scores counted toward the team score.

“Individual awards are given based solely on results from the written test. Team scores are obtained by taking the sum of the four highest written-exam scores, plus the points earned in the ciphering round,” Joshi said.

Trophies are presented to the top five teams in each level and division, along with the top 10 individuals in each level and division.

“Vestavia is always a challenging tournament. The distance to competition is challenging, along with the difficulty of this competition,” Joshi said. “As a teacher, I wake up at 4 a.m. and leave at 5:30 a.m. to be there on time to register and check in my students.”

“Students also leave early from Madison to make it there by 8 a.m. Students can leave before lunch or can choose to stay for awards, but, as their teacher, I don’t get home before 5 p.m. So, it’s a pretty long day,” Joshi said.

Journey Math Team will enter the local MathCounts competition in January 2025, and then advance to MathCounts’ next level. They will compete in James Clemens High School’s tournament on Feb. 1, 2025.

“Being a brand new school and just our second year for Math Team, I hope we’ve placed Journey Middle School on the map,” Joshi said.