Parent Talk / April 2007
Make it Count
 Keri Hurst
|
By Pat Lawrence
Girls may want to have fun, but just having fun would never be enough for Keri Hurst. The fourteen year old Mathlete from Princeton, WV, has competed in math competitions, sings soprano in the choir, plays keyboard and piano, enjoys all kinds of music, likes to ski and read and is planning on a double major of forensic science and communications. Her interests and activities, along with summer camp, have created friendships for her around the world.
Keri lives in Mercer County, in the small community of Lerna along with four generations of her family. With her great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and three sisters as models and support, Keri isn’t a bit worried about how far she can go. For her, there is no limit.
She’s been totally blind for seven years. In 1999, Keri had brain surgery; doctors removed fluid and 90% of the tumor on the optic nerve in the brain stem. She says she’s lucky to be alive. “I had just turned seven. They said I would have died if they’d waited one more day.” A year and a half of chemotherapy followed.
A student at Princeton Middle School during the school term, she attends summer programs of the WV School for Deaf and Blind students and, “I go to camp every year. It’s supported by the American Cancer Society. We’re all cancer survivors, from 7-18. It helps us to be able to talk to each other. We only see each other once a year, but a part of us stays there all the time.”
Though Keri has participated in other math competitions, this year, she became a Mathlete in MATHCOUNTS, the national math coaching and competition program for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. She says, “I’ve always been good at math, even though I don’t particularly care for algebra.” Last year, Marsha Platnick, the gifted-math teacher at her school, gave Keri a few practice problems.” They were easy, so, I wanted to give it a try. I had to wait till this year, since the practice starts in the fall.
We met once a week to practice.” About 50 students from local schools participated in the chapter competition, with the top students advancing to the state level and ultimately, the Lockheed Martin MATHCOUNTS National Competition. “There are individual and team competitions. In the individual competitions, competitors have so many minutes to solve problems. Keri says, “You have all the materials needed with you-paper, pencil and your brain!”
The solutions often take more than simple math, Keri says. “It takes basic problem solving, logic, some geometry and a combination of math skills.” She won’t take geometry in school until next year, though “I had a little with algebra”.
According to Keri, her mother was good at math, too, “But, she says she doesn’t know half of what I do. None of my sisters have taken to math, and my older sister comes to me for help with her geometry.” Still, math is not Keri’s greatest interest. “My parents say ‘Do what you like!’”
Right now, that’s music. Most of what Keri knows about music, she has taught herself. “I do a lot of stuff just by sound. Trying to read music in Braille is very confusing!” Always looking ahead, she's taking Spanish and algebra this year for high school credit but she’s not too busy to spend with the family’s new kitten, Trouble, and their terrier mix, Sugar.
Keri will be fifteen in October. She’s developed carpal tunnel syndrome and it slows her down a bit, especially trying to lift things. But, she says, “Having a handicap doesn’t have to stop you from doing what you want.” Her only real complaint is one shared by young teens every where. “The hardest thing about being blind is you always have to ask someone for a ride!”
For more information about Mathletes, visit www.mathcounts.org.
Copyright © 2001-2009 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Top • Home • Subscribe • Advertise • Submit • Distribution • Contact
Support Our Advertisers • Organization Resources • Women Owned Business
Organization Resource List • Women Owned Businesses • Support Our Advertisers
Maintained by TEABROOKE
Website Design | SEO | Social Media Consulting
Related Sites | XMLSiteMap | Web Portal
Landing Zone SEO - Website | Search | Usability | Results | Goodness
Send an Email About This Article