When she was between her sophomore and junior years as an LSA student, Saja Gherri was an instructor with Math Corps at U(M) summer camp in 2023 when she encountered a challenge. “A student on my team at first was not very interested in the camp, nor in learning math,” Gherri recalls.
That changed over the course of the mentoring program as Gherri’s team worked with her—first to develop a friendship, then to help with math skills. “She was making great progress on her homework and was beginning to do extra weekly challenges,” Gherri says. She even started reading books on astronomy and astrophysics.
“It was exciting to watch her discover her passion,” says Gherri, “and I was very grateful that I could play a part in helping her find it.”
Gherri is one of many extraordinary graduates at LSA this spring. She is earning her bachelor of science degree with a double major in mathematics and interdisciplinary astronomy. She plans to pursue her doctorate in mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin beginning in the fall.
Originally from Connecticut, Gherri was initially drawn to astronomy but added a math major to strengthen her abilities in the sciences. “As I continued to study math,” she says, “I found that concepts that repeatedly appeared across the natural sciences were abstractly and concisely represented in mathematics. I also came to really appreciate the patience and creativity that was required to develop and understand mathematics.”
She grew to enjoy problems that “have inspirations from or applications to astronomy or physics,” she says. “It helps that the math department here has very contagious passion that made my courses very enjoyable.”
Numerous research experiences throughout her time at LSA helped Gherri develop academic independence, as well as what she was—and wasn’t—interested in, she says. “Participating in these collaborations as an undergrad is a particularly interesting experience because you learn how capable you are of adapting and immersing yourself in a new problem that goes beyond your regular coursework,” she says.
The same is true of her work with Math Corps at U(M). Closely following the educational and mentoring practices of the Math Corps, a program that started in 1992 at Wayne State University in Detroit, Math Corps at U(M) started in summer 2019 at U-M. The program teaches math skills to students in and around Ypsilanti, prioritizing mentorship through a kids-teaching-kids model.
Gherri started as a volunteer with the program, working with kids over Zoom on weekends. Then came the summer camp starting in 2023, where “I worked with a team of seventh graders and high school TAs, and my job was to make sure they followed the three rules for kids in camp: be yourself, always strive to realize your own greatness, and be safe.” Last year, she was a community assistant, and this summer she is going to be a teacher with Math Corps at U(M).
Gherri is looking forward to seeing new kids and a lot of familiar faces—including the young woman from the start of the story, who is returning to the camp for another year, ready to further her understanding of the once-daunting mathematical universe.
Photo: Doug Coombe Photography
Video: Saja Gherri was one of the speakers at the Department of Mathematics undergraduate commencement ceremony earlier this spring.
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