PROMYS 24 Review

Oops, it's been a while, hasn't it?

This post has gone through a few revisions and editing since I came out of PROMYS, considering how it's the end of the year. I promised a student that I'd get it done by the end of the year, so here I am making sure that it is done. (at the last moment, I'm not in EST so it's still 2024 for me lol)

PROMYS has always been near and dear to my heart, and of course I returned as a counselor for the summer of 24. I mean, I'm fresh out of freshman year, there really isn't that many things for me to do, and I would love to give back to the program. As I told S. my NT counselor from 22 when I was a JC, I really want to help make PROMYS be the life-changing experience that it was for me.

So Li-Mei, the program director, asked me if I would like to be a head counselor (HC) this year. Kind of scary, really, because I haven't even been a counselor before. But it's alright, I knew that me and my trademark organizational skills have got it in the bag, and so I happily agreed. I also found out that the other head counselor (unfortunately, there was only two this year. Usually there are more), H, was a counselor of mine from PROMYS 22. I didn't really talk to him a whole lot but at least I talked to him, which is not something that I could say was true about approximately half the counselors in 22. I remember trying to stay awake in his minicourse on category theory and failing miserably, and asking him for help every two minutes on the proof of weak Nullstellensatz (crazy assignment to give to high schoolers).

In the time leading up to the program, we did some setting up. I found out that more counselors and other students from 22 were returning, and H informed me that he knew a good amount of people from when he was a student (a lot from '18 and '19) who were coming as counselors. All in all, it was a very exciting lineup. It's definitely nice to have people who were in the program, since they already know about what their job entails precisely, the culture, and what kind of events we as counselors need to host.

There were some new-to-the-program counselors, too, all of whom I can say afterwards were a delight to have in the program. Among them were some Italian spies, sent to gather intelligence so that they can start off their own version of PROMYS in Italy (good luck PROMYS Italy!!!). Overall, the counselors were so much fun this year.

Originally, I had planned to do a week by week overview of the program by consulting the journal that I keep. Unfortunately, I woke up an hour and a half before my flight back home and as I was scrambling to leave, I forgot to bring the journal that I had recorded the PROMYS events in (I have started a new journal since then). Since half of it is by memory, I have scrapped the week-by-week structure and will give one continuous story. It's more detailed towards the beginning and the end because that's what I had written before coming back.

I was filled with enthusiasm and optimism for the program from the very get-go. It was mainly because all the counselors were also very enthusiastic and just cool people. We had to assign a bunch of responsibilities at the beginning, and there were plenty of people who volunteered for each role, that I didn't have to do the dreaded assigning roles to people and hoping they do a good job. The counselors were also just really eager to get to know and befriend each other, and we would often do things together in the first week.

That was something that H said he wanted this year's counselors to be: really good friends with each other. He was the one who suggested that we require everyone to give at least two talks (since counselors give either minicourses or counselor seminars, 1 hour lectures to students or other counselors respectively. You'll come to see how this backfires later), and also that we should just do things together. This will be the first time of many that I say this, but H is very wise in having the foresight of making this a goal. The fact that we counselors are all good friends with each other is such a big reason that PROMYS 24 went well in my opinion.

On day 0, I was at check in. It was supposed to be that H and I would hang around to make sure that every part of check in was going smoothly, but we kinda sat at check in desk and had a shift the entire day. It was fine though, because during that time I got a lot of my minicourse on Elliptic Curves figured out (and then I would go to change it later lmao). Check in went smoothly. I got to see a lot of faces to names that I had seen active on Discord. Very minimal problems (as opposed to last year, which was pretty bad on the Boston University logistics side).

On Tuesday, I decided to go on a run before lecture because that's what I used to do in school (only classes started at 11am, not 9am). That was the only time I went for a run before lecture, because I thereafter decided that sleep was more important than running. I had to really hustle to get to lecture on time.

On one of the days, the counselors all went to the library to borrow math books together. Originally, I had planned to learn algebraic topology this summer (I wanted to get through the homology chapter of Hatcher). A lot of us were on board for this Hatcher reading group, so I was not the one who snatched the hardcopy of Hatcher. I did, however, get Lorenzini's Introduction to Arithmetic Geometry. Unfortunately, I got through like 30 pages total at the end because "I was too busy" (as they all say). I really did enjoy that book though, and it was such a joy to read Lorenzini after I struggled with Hatcher for a while. Now, I'm going to read it over IAP (independent activities period) for the DRP (directed reading program).

The PROMYS Fourth of July picnic was on Thursday in the first week. We had to deal with some annoying logistics because BU dining did not give us a box where they put all the sack lunches for the picnic so we had to enlist a bunch of counselors to carry all the sacks to the picnic location. We successfully got the food there in time and the kids had fun, I think. It was next to an outdoor exercise gym/park, and the counselors climbed things and I got cool pictures of us sitting on top of pullup bars. The fireworks were cool, though they went on for like half an hour and I got rather tired from standing and watching. Afterwards, I went to meet my MIT friend who was staying on campus. We had Insomnia Cookies and talked late into the night. We met a couple times throughout the program to grab a meal and hang out. Love you G!

Looking back at what I wrote in my journal, I will say that in the first week, I was very enthusiastic about PROMYS. I wanted to learn a lot from the other counselors, and challenge myself by taking on things and working through them. I suppose that energy really is the PROMYS effect. Everybody gets hyped up to do math and we all challenge each other to succeed and reach further.

That initial enthusiasm and positivity died down the next week. I think the first half of the program is quite difficult, because we're trying to teach rigor and proving things from the axioms, which is something that is very hard to grasp as a beginner in proof-writing. On top of that, my system of meeting with my student over lunch was not very conducive to doing math. I fix this later on, but I was very frustrated by how unhelpful I was. (I'm probably being way too harsh on myself. I can't expect myself to have magical pedagogical abilities where I ask one prodding question and my student turns into a rigor machine. I have a hard time with unrealistic expectations of myself.)

I was also worried that I was staying up too late with the kids talking about not math. I would ask them about their interests, and if our interests aligned, talk a lot about that. I didn't really have the time to do a lot of math (like work on learning more math), which I would have really liked to do. I was just busy during the day, and I don't really know where my time goes. I think in those early days, I tried to go to every talk, and in between those times, I would ask students what they're working on and chat with them.

I was also disappointed at my performance as a head counselor. Like I've mentioned before, it was my first time being a counselor, so I was still learning a lot of things. That's why H has had to take over and explain to people how things are going to work. It's a lot easier for me to work on the administrative and logistical side of things (my main achievement is making sure attendance is taken everyday). However, I still felt, and I continued to feel this throughout the program, that I should be doing more. At least to me, it felt like there was an implicit race between H and I for who could get the most done for each other lol. It wasn't in a toxic competition sense. It was in the "I should be doing more" sense. Yeah, I definitely would not have survived being a HC if not for H.

Fun fact: Planet Fitness gives out free gym memberships during the summer to high school students. The thing is, they don't even check that you're a high school student. You just create an account through their promotion website and put an age that would put you in high school (in my case, since I skipped a grade, I was young enough to qualify), and then they gave you a membership. J, N, and A, a friend of J's from when they were students in 19 and 20, went to the gym almost everyday and I joined them on their trips.

It was good, I learned how to engage my muscles. I don't know if that was the wisest of decisions though. Going to the gym was like a 2.5 hour commitment each day, because it wasn't very close. I think it was a good time investment, because it's good to get away from the math and everything for some time each day. Though, I really could have done a lot of good math in that time (but realistically speaking, I would have probably been talking to students and not gotten math done. That's good in its own right, but not conducive to learning mathematics). I don't know if that was the right choice or not. I think I definitely should have gone less, perhaps. Again, I'm not really sure. Figuring out what the right thing to do is hard, in general.

My biggest achievement this week was at mandatory fun. It was a collection of various events, but one of them was guess the popular song in a different language (like Antihero in Portuguese or something like that). One of the songs was in American sign language. Many of us did not know sign language, but I made the connection that it was Pharrell Williams "Happy" and that was honestly the most impressive thing I did during PROMYS fr.

Over the weekends is when I get the time to do math. A nice thing about being a counselor is that it forces me to review the number theory that they teach the first years. I was definitely quite shaky on some concepts in my first year, especially because I misunderstood the definition of order and I literally could not prove things regarding the order of an element in the multiplicative group of Z/nZ because it was just not true with what I thought the definition of order was. I never really recovered from that, and so while the rest of the counselors worked on understanding continued fractions better (continued fractions are so cool! They have such unexpected and deep applications in number theory), I sat in the corner and did a lot of questions regarding Z/nZ.

That weekend I actually gave a very impromptu minicourse with T, who was a counselor of mine from '22. The first minicourse that was given in PROMYS '24 was by T on projective geometry, and when I was a JC, the minicourse I gave was partly inspired by T's minicourse. In the minicourse in '22, T talked more about linear algebra (if memory serves me right) as an application of projective geometry. In '23, I talked about projective geometry in the context of Bezout's Theorem. This year, we talked about why conics were degree two equations. We literally spent an hour prepping it on the day that we gave it, and I didn't feel that I did the best job, because I don't have the concepts as intuitively understood as T does. (T knows so much math!)

And while we're talking about T, I did want to note my appreciation for him being there. He knew the most math in the areas that I was personally interested in (algebraic geometry), and I asked him plenty of questions about concepts that I was learning throughout the program. His explanations also made the most intuitive sense to me.

S, the head counselor from '23 and my NT counselor from '22 came to visit the next week. He was here for a conference. It was so great. We yapped for hours and hours about life and math and PROMYS. He's honestly the best counselor I ever had. Such a great mentor and a great friend.

On his first night of arrival, we were walking by, saying hi to everyone. Then, we saw H, a counselor who was trying to teach everyone a conlang called Prodrop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-drop_language). I was very adamant about not learning, but S was curious and so we both sat there at 1, learning prodrop for an hour. I had fun picking up the linguistic details, though I refused to use the language.

Shoutout to H for being such a fun and chaotic counselor. He started a lot of iconic trends, most notably prodrop and its associated culture. I feel compelled to link "the duck is gorping the bunny" (https://youtu.be/-p_krUd2CSA). We had a gorping ritual at the end of the program and it was really really funny to watch. He is also filled with a ton of random fun facts (like drinking the orange juice of a certain dictator's wife?). Shit like this is what makes the program fun.

At the end of week 3, there's a midterm for the kids to consolidate their knowledge for the first half. Because there's a midterm, H and I had to a lot of coordination. It actually wasn't that much logistically, and the actual happening of the midterm was pretty okay, except I think I forgot to read some instructions or something (it was something minor, I forget what). What was actually a logistical nightmare was the grading process.

Initially, I had a really well-thought out plan for how the grading would go, but various counselors had their various disputes over how the entire process would take place. I think I sort of shut down when there is this kind of dispute, and that's something that I need to work on (stems from people pleasing I guess). I really gotta place a firm hand down on "hey this is what we're going to do" and set people to work. Overall, it did work out fine, so that was all good. Other than the initial setup hiccups, it went smoothly (except a minor dispute and some bottlenecks in grading).

I was worried again that weekend afterwards about how I was as a counselor to my own students. I wanted to be more involved and to help them more, but I felt like I didn't know how to be a better pedagogue. I was despairing over this when T came over and asked me how I was doing. Thank you, T, for your words of reassurance. You're another one of my previous counselors who I look to as a mentor and dear friend.

Week 4 was the week that the MIT Blogger apps were due, and so most of my free time in the first half of the week was dedicated to writing for that. I had so much time prior, and I really did not mean to procrastinate, but I was waiting for the right time and feeling to write, and I never found that time. I actually realized that I had plenty of time to do all of this work if I found a place to sit down, away from other people (happens lol). I submitted my application, was happy with some of my writing. I didn't get the position, because they only take like 4 people a year or something absurd like that. My dreams of being CJ will never be realized lmao.

Big shoutouts to AJ who read my blogs before I submitted them, though all he really did was comment on occasional grammar mistakes. I just really appreciate it when people willingly want to read my blog, so shoutout to all of you reading this right now. I really appreciate it <3

We also won the PROMYS v. RSI frisbee match this year!! Big shoutout to I, A, R, J (I hope I'm not missing anyone) and everybody else who lead frisbee this year. I think frisbee was a good event to get kids to mix with each other and make friends, and we had great great team this year.

Since I'm writing this part without my journal, honestly just rushing to get this post out, I will give some shoutouts for week 5. Thank you J, my friend from MIT, for letting me call you throughout the program. I often doubted myself or the things that I should do, and it was really nice talking to you about difficult obstacles that came up. You always inspire me to think rationally and to choose the option that leads to the best outcome in the long-term. I cherish you deeply for your insight and wisdom.

I think I had some conflicts during this time (these things are bound to happen. We are tired as the program is a lot of work, and so stuff like this happens). I did and said some things that I regret. I did learn, however, that people are much more forgiving than you think they are, and that a lot of people genuinely care for you regardless of the disagreements in ideology and the best way to proceed.

I was also surprised by how much people look towards me in this regard, and I wasn't expecting to have to lead (which was such a shocker, because I guess I was the head counselor. But I never felt like a HC because of my age. I mean, some of the counselors this year were my counselor, teaching me math and telling me that my proofs are shit. Even now, they're still teaching me math. Perhaps one of the things that I needed to work on this year was viewing them as peers. Well, I think a lot of what I needed to improve on as HC was leading more, being more assertive, but somehow being assertive without being a dictator. It's hard balance. Leading is hard. I'd like another try at it, maybe.

It's scary admitting this since I know students from PROMYS will be reading this, and I don't want them to get the wrong impression, but I want to be honest and present all of my thoughts on this blog. There was just a moment, where H and I just said, "we just need to get through one more week." At this point, we were both so, so tired.

I want to say that I had the most absolute fun amazing time of my life at PROMYS this year, which is close to what I say about PROMYS every year, but I can't because that would be lying and I don't like faking things. A nontrivial portion of my delayed post is because for the first couple days out of the program, I did not want touch anything to do with it. I stopped checking the Discord server, and I didn't think about PROMYS.

If you remember, earlier in the summer, I went to visit my older sister in Singapore. She's a mother of two right now. After staying for two weeks at her place, chasing after her two kids (well, most of the time chasing after the older one, who's a very outspoken toddler), I was so tired. And I wasn't even doing as much as she was.

As I entertained the kids, I wondered how she did it: how does one wake up everyday with less than 6 hours of sleep and clean and feed and and give your kids all the love that they deserve? It's really hard to truly understand until you've had to spend a day taking care of little kids, but it's like, a lot a lot of work. I did not understand how she did it, and I complimented her deeply on her patience and dedication.

Well, after PROMYS, I believe I understand a little what it's like to be a mother. I wake up after 6 hours of sleep, and I don't wrestle with myself in bed because I know I have to get to lecture on time. I don't want to be shamed by any student or counselor for showing up late, and I'm the one who makes sure that attendance gets done, so it's pretty important that I get there for that. I propel myself forwards through each day, and I find out that I really can do a lot on not a lot of rest. That doesn't mean 3 hours a day, if you're a certain student reading this. There were days where I got sleep deprivation-induced headaches, and I just went to take a nap in my room. The point is, I worked through a lot of things I thought I couldn't work through, without feeling tired at all.

Throughout the program, there were tons of things that I needed to do. Sometimes I would complain about it and try to stall, but not for long. I just realized that it was not going to get done unless I did it, and that I care too much about the program, and making PROMYS a good experience to students and counselors alike, for it to not get done. And that was enough to get me to do it.

I mean, at my core, I live to serve other people. That's where I derive the most meaning in my life. (As opposed to some people, who are driven by things like pursuit of knowledge, commitment to family, money, etc.) The most important thing to me is that my interactions with other people are as positive as they can be.

That's why maybe I was a little too hard on myself during the program (but I had to be! I want to be a better counselor). That's why I have plenty of regrets about things that I could have done better. But I suppose I should give myself credits for the things that I have done. I think PROMYS was a big success this year, modulo a few hiccups here and there that happens every year, I'm sure. The kids are excited and want to come back, which is always a good sign.

I admit that I'm not the most responsible out of all the counselors, but I definitely offered some things to the role, and I did my best. Thank you, PROMYS, for this opportunity. I've definitely matured a lot from this. I've also made closer friends as a result. We love it when that happens.

Shoutouts to people

I saved the gooey stuff here, all condensed for you.

Thank you, S. You forever will be the best counselor and mentor figure I've ever had. Thank you for listening to my mathematical and mathematical-related turmoil over the last two years. Thank you for that math book you gave me last year, thank you for the Clam-O-Naise you dropped on me last year. Thank you for the conversations we had, for both the ones about our weird interests and about what the best thing to do in life is. I don't think I can put down how much gratitude I feel towards you. Thank you forever and always.

Thank you H for being an amazing co-HC. You understand a lot of the intricacies of being a leader and managing people, and that's something that I personally lack (lmao). I greatly appreciated all of your work. I wish I had gotten to talk to you more throughout the program (and I did talk to you more after). You seem to have lived a very interesting life so far.

Thank you AJ for being a good friend of mine. I felt that this summer has really brought us together, and I'm forever grateful for that opportunity. You offer me the best words of encouragement.

Thank you N for also being a good friend of mine. I will always enjoy our late night yap sessions. Thank you also for being really mature about stuff throughout the program, I always felt like I could tell you things without worrying too much about how to say it.

Thank you T for all the random math yap, and always being there to answer any mathematical questions I have. You're my mathematical role model tbh. I aspire to teach the way that you do. Thank you also for the good conversation.

Thank you I, for always being willing to help throughout the program, and even back from when I first met you. Thank you for always fearlessly asking questions when you're confused during counselor seminars. It's something that we all need to learn more from.

Thank you J for inviting me to go to the gym with you and always being down to play fish. Thank you A for being such a fun character to be around, and thank you for the concern you show for your students and the thought that you put into making sure they're succeeding. Thank you A for having tons of cool and really accessible math facts and problems for the students. Thank you H for also being super fun with the students. You're very good at knowing exactly when to goof off and when to be serious, and I appreciate that trait in you. Thank you A for your work with dealing with some students and being vigilant with things. You offer a more different perspective on things than I do and I appreciate the variety. Thank you AM for always being there to help and always finding ways to help. Thank you A (+A) for your category theory seminars, they were really fun. Thank you E, J, and J for being cool friends, always being down to get food/boba, and hanging out (and special shoutout for J for helping out with the design of the t-shirt and various tech things, you're actually sleeper carrying the program). Thank you G for the times we talked about our shared interests, and I'm happy I got to know you more this year. Thank you F, N, R for being such goofballs. Thank you T for the kindness and warmth that you radiate. Thanks P for your seminars at the end, I'm sorry I couldn't go to them. Thank you H for your chill advice about life and math and grad school. Thank you J for being the residential responsible adult and medic. It came in really clutch.

As I said, the counselors were great this year. Absolutely amazing. I love y'all.

Happy new year.