MUUUUUve Over for TZ's Newest Inductees!

Make some room and MUUUUUve over for Tappan Zee High School's newest inductees! TZHS' chapter of Mu Alpha Theta, the national mathematics honor society (HS), on June 3 grew by seven during its annual induction ceremony. These members are: Ronit B., Tavius C., Juliana E., Noah J., Ilhan M., Jayden S. and Kiana T.

To be eligible, students must have at least a two-year average of 95 or a three-year average of 90 or greater in their math coursework, perform peer tutoring, engage in service to their school and project work. The event — led entirely by HS officers — also saw the return of alumna and former Chapter Vice President Molly Culot (Class of 2024), who served as the celebration's guest speaker. Molly is a rising junior at Northeastern University working towards a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Business Administration and spoke about the importance and uniqueness of the subject, especially in a world growing increasingly more reliant on artificial intelligence (AI).

"Math forces you to think," she said. "Sitting with a hard, multi-step problem and working through it without outsourcing it is one of the only things left that genuinely exercises that muscle. AI makes cognitive offloading so easy and frictionless that if you are not intentional about it, you stop doing hard thinking altogether. Math class is one of the few places that still require you to show up and actually use your brain. You will take the skill of critical thinking that you get from math and apply it into any field that you go into."

Congratulations, all, and welcome back, Molly!