As it has for fourteen summers before, the Math Corps Summer Camp in 2007 provided another wonderful summer for Detroit children. Close to 400 middle school and high school students, from all over the city, were welcomed into an atmosphere of caring, acceptance and high expectations.

The first day was a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. Many students new to the program were probably wondering why they had sacrificed a summer free from school to attend a six-week math camp. The answer, already ingrained in the minds of all of the returning kids, was provided in the welcoming speech given by Professor Kahn: "Every one of you has greatness inside of you. We believe that with a passion! And it’s our goal to help you realize it."

Unsuspecting students had just received their very first clue that this camp was not going to be ordinary. Many of the students came here thinking that they had signed up just to learn mathematics, but they quickly found out that this camp was about so much more. The Math Corps offers a powerful sense of family to anyone who walks through its doors. It wasn’t long before our kids found not only mentors and role-models, but big brothers and big sisters, and in some cases, a father or mother figure. And no matter what academic background or personal challenges our students may have had, they quickly came to understand that they were going to be challenged to be their best selves.

The typical day and structure of the camp is designed to accommodate students at every level of mathematics as well as to highlight achievement, inspire confidence, embrace family, strengthen relationships, ignite motivation and have fun. The students began their day at assembly every morning, excitedly calling out the roll call in teams, often inventing personalized team cheers. The most important part of the assembly was acknowledging the achievements of our kids as the names of those students who scored a perfect 10 on their homework or did the challenging "star" problem correctly were read out loud. At the end, the grade supervisors read the totals for each grade level, engaging in a friendly competition that often involved some rapping. On fire as usual, one day, Mr. Zachos, Grade Supervisor for the 9’s at Site I, dropped his methodical flow and personalized his rendition of "This Is Why We're Hot".

While the reading of the tens and stars was a reverent tribute, the rest of assembly was a mix of motivational commentary and announcements, injected with a hefty amount of humor and fun. To create the right balance, students learned the importance of transitioning from seriousness to comedy and comedy to seriousness. I do need to point out that the use of the word "humor" here is up for interpretation. The kids who had to endure the jokes that Mr. Boehm, Site I's Minister of Humor, would tell each day (he thought they were great), know what I mean. Of course, the kids always loved watching him do his morning stretch before introducing their Dean, Ms. Martell. Each week’s comedy culminated in the "Joke of the Week," a skit acted out by staff members dressed in costumes, with a funny, or unfunny according to some, one-liner ending.

Thank goodness Mr. Vincentini, the Minister of Humor at Site II, was able to find the "prop" every week. However minimal the role, the appearance of the overhead projector (aka "the prop") along with a round of "WHAZZUPs" from Mr. V, always signaled the beginning of the joke. Students will never forget the electrifying (or horrifying?) appearance of DeAndre in that little black dress.

After assembly, students went directly to Team Time. Each team was led by a College Instructor (CI) and composed of 10 middle school students (7s, 8s, or 9s), 5 high school students, called Teaching Assistants (TA’s), and in some cases two other high school students who served as Program Assistants (PA’s). Paired up with a TA, students spent time going over their homework and receiving individualized instruction.

As you can imagine, the peer tutoring that takes place is powerful and creates bonds that last even as kids enter high school and college. In fact, the great majority of our TA’s and PA’s were former middle school students who came up through the program, just wanting to give back the mentorship and learning that was given to them.

During the day, students at all grade levels attended classes that covered both basic mathematics and mathematics usually only seen at the college level. Out of the infinite void, a star was born, or rather, many stars were born in Mr. Boehm's seventh grade Discovery class. Students investigated various summation problems and wrote a deductive proof for the general formula of a geometric series. You may know about 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional shapes, but did you know that some shapes can have a dimension of 1.3? Eighth graders in Mr. Nazelli's Discovery class learned about these shapes called Fractals, which have dimensions that are not whole numbers. At the high school level, students learned about Logic, Proof-Writing or the uncountability of the Real Numbers, depending on their grade level. All of this hard work paid off, as student test scores increased from pre-camp averages of 25 - 30% to above 90% over the course of six weeks.

While all of the achievements of our kids were certainly newsworthy, the personal stories that occurred every day were the heart of the program. Every year students inspire us, the staff, to keep working harder. This year was no exception. For the first time ever, the Math Corps offered a "Volunteer Day" for students to work at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, as an optional Friday activity. The response was so overwhelming that we had to open up a second site at St. Aloysius to accommodate all of the students who wished to participate. The coordinator stated that it would have taken months to accomplish the work that our kids did in only a few short hours. Thanks to everyone who participated - you really made a difference!

Another rousing camp stand-out, was the presentation of "ESPN-like" sports highlights from our own, play by play analyst, Mr. Nazelli, Director of Site II. Mr. Nazelli showed us that the "staff had game" with his colorful photos of "who got dunked on" at the last Sports Day. Until those photos (all carefully doctored of course), I had no clue we had NBA players in the Math Corps house.

As is life, this summer was full of joyous moments and sad moments, but we always came together as a family to support each other - good or bad. There were stories of triumph and courage that took place daily in our classrooms and hallways, but there was one story that captured our hearts. An application came to us from a little girl who had recently lost her mother and expressed in her essay a genuine plea for help in math. Upon hearing about this, one of our high school students volunteered to leave her friends behind at Site II to work with this little girl at Site I. It was not an easy decision but this TA cared so deeply and was so dedicated to working with the student, that she continued on even after the third week, when she unbelievably and tragically lost her own father to a heart attack. While this situation was unique, the dedication and commitment shown to the younger students by the TA's and PA's, CA's and CI's, was not. There were many, many stories this summer of times when a high school kid would step up and go the extra mile for a middle school kid or a college student for a high school kid. We recognize how very special they are and appreciate all that they do.

Through it all, from Family Meal Days to the Chess Exhibition, from Team Time to Math Olympics, this past summer was full of memories that will last a lifetime. This is most powerfully stated in the students' own words:

"I believe that the purpose of Math Corps is to give children a fair opportunity at getting an education but more importantly, at learning to love and accept themselves just as they are. Math Corps was not a math program but a family where kids learn to believe in who they are and who they can become."
--12th grade TA

"When I came to Math Corps as a 7, I thought it was just a math program, but over time my perspective of this has broadened. What I mean is that Math Corps is so much more than a Math Program! Math Corps is my second family. Anyone that comes to see our kids and their greatness can see and feel the love we have for one another. I can come to Math Corps feeling sad or angry and leave with a smile."
--11th grade TA

"This program takes an extra effort in the students so that they feel that they can succeed! This effort enlightens the students and causes a domino effect of success which doesn’t just stop at the end of camp. Math Corps gives the students the mindset that they can do anything that they set their minds to."
--11th grade TA

The 2007 Math Corps Summer Camp was filled with Mathematics and fun, with kindness and courage. We all grew a little bit and learned more about ourselves, and in the process built powerful and lasting relationships. But in the end, I’ll echo what Professor Kahn has always said, the 2007-Math Corps Summer Camp was simply all about the greatness of our kids.