PCC Student Contending for National Math Contest Award

December 20, 2011

Tucson, AZ – Sean Tiffin was Pima Community College’s top finisher in the first part of a national math competition for community college students, finishing tied for sixth in the Southwest Region.

“The fact that Pima Community College consistently has students placing in the top 10 and top 20 in this competition speaks very highly of our Mathematics Program,” said Desert Vista Campus Academic Dean Nina Corson, who also was a member of the PCC Math Faculty for five years.

Tiffin was one of 259 PCC students competing in Round 1 of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges Student Mathematics League regional competition. PCC competitors were from Downtown, East, Northwest, West and Desert Vista campuses.

Pima placed fourth as a team in the 2011-2012 competition’s first round. Team scores were a sum of each college’s top five student scores. Tiffin is a student of Luis Leon’s at PCC’s Desert Vista Campus.

The two exams (rounds 1 and 2) that constitute the contest are administered locally in an approximately two-week window, Round 1 in fall and Round 2 in spring. Each one-hour test is at the precalculus mathematics level, with questions from a standard syllabus in College Algebra and Trigonometry.

The overall winner, with the highest total score in both rounds, wins a $3,000 scholarship to be used to continue his or her education at an accredited four-year institution. Math-related prizes also are given to other top individual and team performances.

Student Mathematics League has more than 165 colleges in more than thirty-five states and Bermuda, involving over eight thousand community college math students.

To learn more about the competition, visit www.amatyc.org/SML.

CONTACT:
C.J. Karamargin
Vice Chancellor for Public Information and Government Relations
(520) 206-4850