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Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics

A PROJECT OF THE ART OF PROBLEM SOLVING INITIATIVE, INC.

Annual Report 2020/2021

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Our Mission

BEAM creates pathways for students from low-income and historically marginalized communities to become scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists.

Our Students

In our most recent cohort to enter the BEAM Pathway Program...

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76%

Come from minoritized racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM*

​

*This includes people who are: American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latinx.

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71%

Will be first in their families to graduate from college

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$31k

Median Family Income**

​

**Median family size is 5.

44%

Female

53%

Male

3%

Nonbinary/

Gender Fluid

Our Students
Our Impact

Our Impact

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BEAM works with students for up to 10 years, supporting them through every step of their academic and personal development, and helping them achieve their dreams in math and science.

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BEAM Discovery

SUMMER AFTER 6TH GRADE

BEAM students persevere.

​

We ask our students at the beginning and end of Discovery, “What’s the longest you’ve spent on a single math problem?”

 

In our online program in 2020, the median answer more than tripled, going from 50 minutes at the beginning of the summer to 3 hours at the end! 40% of students told us they had worked 1 day or more on a single problem during the summer.

- Olivia (BEAM Discovery Online, New York)

“If it weren’t for BEAM, I would have never learned about the Fibonacci sequence and Pascal’s pyramid, and I would have never seen numbers in such a beautiful way!”

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BEAM
Pathway
Program

7TH GRADE TO COLLEGE

BEAM Summer Away

SUMMER AFTER 7TH GRADE

At BEAM, math skills grow. 

​

We asked students, On a scale of 1-7 (7 being the most), how much do you feel your math skills grew this summer?

 

At Summer Away online in summer 2021, 96% of students answered 5 or higher, with 36% of students answering 7.

“BEAM has changed the way I thought about math forever!”

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- Sean (BEAM Summer Away Online, Los Angeles)

8th Grade

BEAM students in New York City are admitted to highly competitive high schools.

​

In spring 2020, 27% of students who did Specialized High School Admission Test (SHSAT) prep with BEAM received admissions offers from New York City Specialized High Schools, including Brooklyn Technical High School, Bronx Science, and Stuyvesant. (For comparison, citywide, 16% of students who took the SHSAT got offers.)

 

Citywide, only 4% of Black and Hispanic/Latinx SHSAT-takers got offers at Specialized High Schools. At BEAM, 24% of Black and Hispanic/Latinx test-takers earned spots.

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High School

With BEAM’s help, our high school students attend other strong STEM programs.

 

In 2020, BEAM students attended more than a dozen summer STEM programs, including;

​

  • PROMYS

  • MathPath

  • Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth programs

  • Rockefeller Summer Science Research Program

  • Cooper Union Summer STEM

  • GOALS for Girls

  • NASA internship

  • Qubit x Qubit (quantum computing) 

  • Hk Maker Lab (Columbia School of Engineering)

  • GirlsxMRO (topics on advanced math)

  • ...and more!

College

BEAM students earn spots at great colleges.

​

In 2020 and 2021, BEAM students were accepted at many strong-fit colleges, including Brown, The City College of New York, Columbia, Fordham, Georgetown, Harvard, SUNY Binghamton, Stanford, University of Chicago, Wesleyan, Yale, and more.

 

Overall, almost 70% of our college cohort have earned spots at colleges ranked “very competitive” or higher by Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges.

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Our Work

Our Work in 2020 - 2021

We successfully pivoted to virtual programming.

2020 and 2021 were anything but normal. The pandemic presented tremendous challenges to our students and families, to our staff, and to our work. But amidst those many challenges, there were also lots of bright spots.

Watch

this 6-minute video featuring BEAM college student Aisha about our first-ever virtual summer program.

Hear
from BEAM students what they accomplished in this 2-minute video.

Want to learn more? BEAM staff produced a whitepaper to share what we learned from running online with the field:
“BEAM Virtual Summer Programming: Adjustments and Lessons Learned.”

Go in depth: see some of the math students did at our virtual programs

BEAM high school and college students accomplished some incredible things (even in the midst of a pandemic!)

We're growing and expanding our reach

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BEAM Beyond 10

BEAM Beyond 10

A Snapshot of our Growth

Our next 10 years are already underway! Stay in touch to see what happens next.

Our Board & Financials

Board/Financials

Board of Directors

  • Richard Rusczyk, President

  • Darryl Hill, Secretary

  • Nanayaa Dadson, Treasurer

  • Kenneth Baron

  • Edray Goins

  • Jeff Hoffman

  • Kristin Kearns-Jordan

  • Kiran Kedlaya

  • Sandor Lehoczky

  • Paul Sherman

  • Susan Schwartz Wildstrom

Our Supporters

CONTRIBUTORS ABOVE

$250,000

  • Anonymous (x4)

  • Carina Initiatives, Inc.*

  • Hudson River Trading LLC

  • La Vida Feliz Foundation*

  • Overdeck Family Foundation*

  • Aakanksha Sarda and Alex Schwendner*

  • Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation*

CONTRIBUTORS FROM $100,000-$249,000

  • Anonymous

  • Ken and Deborah Baron*

  • The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation*

  • Jack Kent Cooke Foundation*

  • Edwin Gould Foundation*

  • The Lehoczky Escobar Family*

  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation*

  • Abigail and Adam Winkel*

CONTRIBUTORS FROM $25,000-$99,999

  • Anonymous

  • Altman Foundation*

  • Vera R. Campbell Foundation

  • Ann and John Doerr*

  • Fund for Shared Insight

  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation*

  • Charles Hayden Foundation*

  • Loewenberg Foundation*

  • Richard and Vanessa Rusczyk*

  • The Shippy Foundation*

CONTRIBUTORS FROM $10,000-$24,999

  • Anonymous (x4)

  • Ernest and Catherine Abbott

  • American Mathematical Society*

  • Arbor Brothers Inc*

  • D. E. Shaw

  • Suhas Daftuar

  • Alan Deckelbaum and Beth Zweig*

  • ECMC Foundation

  • Jodi and David Fields*

  • Evan Goldberg and Family*

  • Arjun Khandelwal

  • Maxine Lee and David Vincent*

  • Herbert and Bari Lichtman*

  • Mason Smith*

  • Michael Sullivan & Associates LLP and employees

  • Susan Schwartz Wildstrom*

CONTRIBUTORS FROM

$5,000-$9,999

  • Anonymous (x2)

  • Chess.com

  • Richard Dore*

  • David Frohardt-Lane*

  • Ashley and Jamie Harmon

  • A J Hildebrand*

  • Jeffrey Hoffman and Leslie Buller*

  • Elizabeth and Alexander Kendall*

  • Ram Krishnan*

  • Marina and Sergey Levin*

  • The Lindenbaum and Gordon Family Fund*

  • Casey McNamara and David Farhi*

  • Laurie and Andy Okun*

  • Gustavo Palazzi and Anna Maria Niceta*

  • Lara Porter and Pinhus Dashevsky

  • Ariel Rabkin*

  • Lorraine Thomas*

  • The Tudor Foundation*

  • Glenn Willen*

  • Rufus Williams and Paytre Topp*

  • David Wu*

CONTRIBUTORS FROM

$1,000-$4,999

  • Anonymous (x16)

  • Venu and Melissa Angara*

  • Syed Ashrafulla*

  • Mira Bernstein*

  • Sergei Bernstein and Robin Dahan*

  • Solicited by Alfred C. Berol Fund

  • Tim Black*

  • Maury and Joseph Bohan*

  • Greg Burnham and Courtney Yadoo*

  • Ruthie Byers*

  • David Cheng

  • Karina Cho

  • Jonas Corona*

  • Nicholas Coutrakon

  • Nanayaa Dadson*

  • Glen and Cyndi Dawson*

  • DL

  • Doty Family Foundation*

  • Joshua Ehrlich

  • Katharine and Thomas Ewald*

  • Craig Falls and Allison Cromwell*

  • Matthew Frost

  • Gabriella Garbasz*

  • Garbasz Family*

  • In honor of Halimeda Glickman-Hoch*

  • The Grant Family Fund

  • Andrew Grider

  • Rupal Gupta

  • John H. Healey and Paula J Olsiewski*

  • Anika Huhn*

  • Madison Ihrig

  • Karen Johnston*

  • Kiran Kedlaya*

  • Jackie Kim

  • Benjamin Kraft*

  • Allyson and Don Laackman*

  • Thomas Lawler*

  • Tye Lidman

  • Alfred and Rebecca Lin

  • Runpeng Liu

  • Jan-Willem Maessen and Andrea Humez*

  • The Henry Luce Foundation

  • Amber and CW McCullagh*

  • In memory of Ross Miller*

  • Aston Motes

  • Sridhar Narayanan*

  • Robert O'Connor*

  • Michael Ordway

  • Jack Palen*

  • In honor of Yuhui Pang

  • Sahil Patel

  • Madalina Persu

  • In honor of Richard Rusczyk, whose impact on our country’s future cannot be overstated

  • Dmitry Sagalovskiy*

  • Chris Shabsin and Dana Scott*

  • Sameer Shah*

  • YinFeng Shao*

  • Michael and Megan Shulman*

  • Youlian Simidjiyski*

  • Theodore Singer*

  • Gaurav Singh*

  • Rajdeep and Jasjeet Singh

  • Noah Snyder and Malia Jackson*

  • Amy Solas and Richard Klein*

  • Barbara and Robert Staffaroni*

  • Jalex Stark*

  • James Sullivan

  • Anthony Valderrama*

  • Kannan Venkateshwar

  • Alexander Wang and Edith Cohen*

  • Wickard Family Fund

  • Martin Wild, Jim Motroni, and Renee Deroko*

  • Linda Woo and Amir Najmi

  • Matthew Wright*

  • Ron Offer Yehoshua and the Baskin Family Foundation*

  • Mirilla Zhu

  • Zoheri Logue Giving Fund*

CONTRIBUTORS FROM

$200-$999

  • Anonymous (x48)

  • Matthew Ando

  • Apollonia Virtual Desk

  • Tessa Bartlett

  • Adrian Baur*

  • In honor of Adrian Baur

  • Amanda Bennett and Jamie Gray*

  • Jane Boon and Norman Pearlstine*

  • Ranu and Ravi Boppana*

  • Duane Burton

  • Adriana Castilla*

  • Michael and Lake Charles*

  • Andrew Chess

  • Craig Chu and Charley Mills*

  • Killian Coate

  • Rob Coe*

  • In honor of Cory Colbert*

  • Rita Cooper

  • The Cordeiro Family

  • The Cubby, Cali, and Cuzzy The Bear Fund

  • John Curran

  • Lisa Danz*

  • Caleb and Kali Das*

  • Kirsten Dean

  • Marisa Debowsky*

  • Elizabeth Decolvenaere

  • Alex Dehnert*

  • Joanne Dillon*

  • Rich Dooley and Marie Martinez-Wolcott*

  • Isabel and Scott Draves

  • Richard and Ann duMoulin

  • Samuel Duncan*

  • Catherine Eckel*

  • Eve and Richard Egelhof*

  • Jordan Ellenberg*

  • Gee Eng*

  • Jacqueline Frey*

  • Holman Gao*

  • B. Alan and Sharon Gillis*

  • Edray Herber Goins

  • Catherine Havasi and Jason Alonso*

  • Amy and Jim Healy

  • Robert Henderson and Martina Brosnahan*

  • Joan Herman and Richard Rasiej 

  • Aaron and Jennifer Hill*

  • Darryl Hill*

  • Gary and Lilia Hirschhorn

  • Lisa Ho*

  • In honor of JoAnne DeLaney Hopkins Gorman

  • Melissa Huther and Gordon Hof*

  • Reva Kasman*

  • Michelle Katz and Robert DeSimone

  • Elizabeth Kelly and Andrew Varani*

  • Mr. Kumar and Ms. Chimalakonda*

  • Louis and Allison Kural*

  • Marc-Paul Lee*

  • In honor of the Lehigh Valley Math Team

  • Lisa Leone

  • Levitt Weiss Impact Fund

​

  • Jason Lin

  • Jonathan Love

  • ​YQ Lu*

  • Lundstrom Family Foundation

  • Winston Luo*

  • Brad Lytle

  • Corinne Madsen

  • Malini and Ravikanth*

  • Leigh Malone

  • John Marchand*

  • Stephen Maurer*

  • Robert and Nancy McCullough*

  • Ariel and Chris Meave-Ohrt*

  • MERAssociates, LLC*

  • J&K Morrell

  • Sanjay Nandipaku*

  • Lisette Nieves and Greg Gunn*

  • Doug O'Roark*

  • Paul and Cindy Obermeyer

  • Jennie Orr Thomas and Daniel Thomas

  • Aparna Pappu

  • Akash Patel*

  • David Patrick*

  • Joseph N. Paulson

  • Wende Peters

  • Greg Price*

  • Laura Punnett and Rafael Moure-Eraso, in honor of Lynn Cartwright-Punnett*

  • Sally Quinn

  • In honor of Olga Radko*

  • David Rapaport*

  • Emily Riehl*

  • Kristie Roldan, Disney VoluntEARS Grant

  • Marcus C. Sarofim

  • Anschel Schaffer-Cohen

  • Aviva and David Schwarz

  • Tasha Shangvi*

  • Tristan Shin

  • Mia Smith*

  • Tara Smith*

  • Kala Selvamanickam

  • Elia Robyn Speer*

  • Alec Stais*

  • Peter Thill

  • Andrew Towle

  • Heather Traher

  • Tina Tseng

  • Alexandra Vinegar*

  • Michael Wax*

  • Jake Wildstrom*

  • Amie Wilkinson and Benson Farb*

  • Ryan Williams*

  • Jeffrey Wong*

  • Japheth Wood and Mariel Fiori*

  • Jo Wright*

  • Sarah Wu*

  • Ray Yang

  • The Zaretsky Family

  • Xiaoqi Zhu*

CONTRIBUTORS UP TO $199

  • Anonymous (x191)

  • Kruti Acharya

  • Carolyn Aler

  • In honor of all those who slipped through the cracks

  • Janet Allison*

  • Jan Altman

  • Amani family

  • Al and Margie Anderson

  • Katie Anderson

  • Lawrence Antoine

  • Jessica Arinella

  • Frank Armstrong

  • Aryan's Family from San Diego

  • Caleb Ashley

  • Rebecca B

  • Spencer Backman

  • In memory of Marty Badoian

  • Lawrence Baker

  • Santhosh Balasubramanian

  • Niraj Banshal

  • Vivek Baraya

  • Chase Barrette

  • Irene Be

  • BEAM in Boston*

  • Paula Beardell Krieg

  • Bee-Decked, LLC*

  • Yasha Berchenko-Kogan*

  • Kelly Bergland

  • Dan Berkowitz

  • Anna Berlanga*

  • Susan Berman Drews

  • Bryan Bischof

  • Jacqui Bloomberg

  • Manny Boaten

  • Alex Bohnert

  • Barbara Booth and Thomas Carlisle, in honor of Sylvia Carlisle and Will Green*

  • Miss Moonxoxo Botanica

  • Audrey Bourne

  • McKayla Bradley

  • Alissa Brandon

  • Jacqueline Briggs

  • Bright Funds Foundation

  • Fredrica M Brooks*

  • Ron Buckmire

  • Marko Budisic

  • In honor of Rachelle Bull, Philippe Francois, Lateefah Id-Deen, & Anthony Reid

  • OJ Burns

  • Diana and Jamie Burr*

  • Michele Bustamante

  • Eugene C.

  • Benjamin Caceres

  • Joe Cartwright and Susan Punnett*

  • Peter Castaldi

  • Ahmet-Hamdi Cavusoglu

  • Timothy Cerabino

  • Daniel Chaitow

  • Sevan Chanakian

  • Robert Chen (Two Sigma)

  • Lillian Chin*

  • Karina Cho

  • In honor of Jesus Christ

  • John Clark

  • Eli Cohen

  • Elias Cohen

  • Cory Colbert*

  • Johnny Collins

  • Jim Conant

  • Nina Crews

  • Dave Cuny

  • Edward J Curtis, Jr.

  • Yvonne D.

  • Lara Daly-Sims

  • In honor of Sanjana Das

  • Ingrid Daubechies

  • Anna de Bakker*

  • Jillian Debusk

  • Bethany Delahunt

  • Linda Derezinski

  • Andrew Derrickson

  • In honor of Sloan Despeaux

  • In honor of Sloan Despeaux

  • Alex Detrick

  • Sarah Dickerson

  • The Dwyer Family

  • Elena*

  • Phyllis Emigh in honor of Dr. Sean Wilner*

  • Luke Enlow

  • Russ Enlow

  • Donna Enlow Gough

  • Alicia Entem

  • Bill Epstein

  • Elaine Epstein

  • Amos Eshel*

  • Amy Estersohn*

  • Joyce Farnsworth

  • D. Feng

  • Aaron Fenyes

  • Sara Fish

  • Rebekah Fisher

  • The Florin Family

  • Stephen Foley

  • Beth Fossen

  • Michael Frassinelli

  • Alex Freuman

  • Fernando Fulcar*

  • Kevin Fundora

  • Marçal Garolera Huguet

  • Mark Garrison

  • Bereket Ghebremedhin

  • Andrei Gheorghe

  • Sumita Ghosh

  • Amy and Andy Glover

  • David Goldfinger

  • Sheldon and Susan Goldstein

  • Susan Goldstine

  • Hector Gonzalez

  • Eric Goodson

  • Maria Grandoni

  • Allison Greaney

  • Carolyn Greenberg and James David Allred

  • Lynne Gross

  • Jonathan Grutman

  • Rebecca Gutwin

  • Chris H

  • Joseph and Catherine Hajdu

  • Kerri Halloran

  • David and Lynne Hamrick*

  • Joe Hanley

  • In honor of Eric Hanson

  • Harris/Wilkinson Family Fund

  • Brooke Hartman

  • Martha Hartt

  • In honor of Lee Hayes

  • Richard Hecht

  • Melinda Higgons

  • Kristina Hill

  • William Hirsch

  • In honor of Jeff Hoffman*

  • Jen Hom*

  • Thomas Howland

  • Michelle Hu

  • Edward Huang

  • Janet Hughen

  • Ben Irey

  • Alex Irpan

  • Tom James*

  • Jen Jones Smallwood

  • Reena Joubert

  • Sujay Kazi

  • Aubrey Keely

  • Karen Keely

  • Jo Ann Kester

  • Basit Khan

  • Khetan Family

  • In honor of Semmie Kim and Clay Hambrick

  • Stephen Kinnett

  • Clare Klemmer

  • Kelly Kochanski

  • Irina Kogan

  • Scott Duke Kominers*

  • Smita Krishnaswamy

  • Emily Kuhn

  • Rick Kuzoian

  • Jan La Chance

  • In honor of Don Laackman

  • Tom Lagatta

  • Kevonna Laidley

  • Tolu Lawal

  • Chi Le, the real Beth Harmon

  • Carolyn Lee Mattison

  • Scott Lembitz

  • Alan Leo

  • Shannon Leslie

  • C Liang*

  • Kathryn Lindsey

  • Gary Linkevich

  • DD Liu*

  • In honor of Dennis Liu

  • Nick Lloyd

  • Ayelet Lobel

  • Dennis Loo

  • In honor of John Loustau

  • Alphonso Lucero*

  • In honor of Al Lucero

  • Jayson Lynch

  • Jo Machesky

  • Jason Manuel

  • Tina Margiotta

  • Roger M. & Michelle S. Marino Charitable Foundation

  • Alysha Maris

  • Emily Martin

  • Jill and Dick Martin*

  • Stephen Martin

  • Martinez Family

  • Randi Martinez

  • Mathematicians for Equality*

  • Matt - 2018 BEAM counselor

  • Rita Matta

  • David Maxey

  • Matthew Maycock*

  • The Mays*

  • Maia McCormick*

  • Janice and Gregory McCullough

  • Markus McCullough

  • Peter McNamara and Emily Dryden

  • Brian Meshell

  • Janet Miller

  • In honor of Juliet Misshula on her 9th Birthday!

  • Justin Miyashiro

  • Farrah Mohammed

  • Laura Moncusi

  • Preston Morris

  • Drs. Rose Morris-Wright and Philip Chodrow

  • Roya Moussapour

  • Brian Murphy

  • Marcus and Marcela Neal

  • Max Needham

  • In honor of Todd Nelling*

  • In honor of Isaac Newton

  • Nancy Nichols Kearns

  • Nick*

  • Brent Nicklas

  • Karen Novak

  • Monica Ortiz

  • In honor of Mark, Leila, & Jacob Paltrowitz and Joanna Sheinfeld

  • Daniel Passner

  • Sangita Patel Sharma

  • Amber Perez

  • Emanuel Perez

  • Manuel Perez Archila

  • In honor of Jorge Perez's 4x4x48 Challenge

  • Jorge Perez's challenge

  • Dan Petersen

  • Tom Petersen

  • Chris Piasecki

  • Pamela Piccola-Fales*

  • Avery Pickford

  • Mary Potter

  • Hope Punnett*

  • Michelle Qin

  • Deirdre Quillen

  • Beth Quittman

  • Linda Quittman

  • Matt Record

  • Vijay Renganathan

  • Debra Rey

  • Stephanie Reyes

  • Dominic Ricci

  • Eliot Robson

  • Mike Rodik

  • Marussia Role, in honor of wonderful teacher, Siddhi Krishna

  • Cogan Rooney

  • Katherine Rorschach and David Savitt*

  • Samantha Rossano

  • Holly Rudel

  • Kristin Ryan

  • Karen Rylander

  • Sadie S in honor of Tom James

  • Robert Sachs

  • Sai, Mani, Sriram

  • Chris Sammons

  • Sam's friends

  • Raeli Savitt

  • Shannon Sayer

  • In honor of Ms. Alexandra Schmidt

  • In honor of Bridget Schreiner

  • JP Sebastian

  • Julie Sebastian

  • Cezar Serban

  • In honor of Sameer Shah (x2)

  • Catherine Sheard*

  • Fangfei Shen

  • Kathleen Shiffman

  • Daniel Siegel

  • Dennis Siegel

  • Janet Siegel

  • Jason Siegel

  • David Sloat

  • Matt Small

  • Scott Smereka

  • Joe Soria

  • Joshua Speckman

  • Bruce Spero

  • Amy Storbakken

  • In honor of Diana Strauss

  • Martin Strauss

  • Francis Su*

  • Valerie Su

  • Naren Suresh

  • Sile Surman

  • Sarah Sword

  • Kana Takematsu

  • Diana Talley

  • David Tamas-Parris

  • Vanessa Tan

  • Shigehito Tanaka

  • Jessica Taylor

  • Lauren Tennant

  • Astrik Tenney

  • In honor of Astrik Tenney (x3)

  • Megan Thomas

  • Torrico Family Supporting Kids from Underrepresented Groups

  • Sarah Trebat-Leder*

  • John Vise

  • Mary Kathleen Wallace

  • Dr. David Wang*

  • In honor of Lee-kai Wang*

  • Lee-kai Wang*

  • Sangsan Warakkagun

  • Peter Watson

  • Adena Wayne

  • Ryan Weber

  • Hallie Weiss

  • Jaime Weiss

  • Shaindy Weiss

  • Joe Weitzer

  • Howard Weitzman

  • Cindy Welch

  • Tracy Wemett

  • Thomas Wensink

  • Joshua Wilkening

  • Toh Ne Win*

  • In honor of Clinton C. Wolfe

  • Dr H W Woodward

  • Nora Wu, in honor of Art Chung's 75th Birthday

  • Yale Undergraduate Math Society

  • Joyce Yang

  • Zack Yorke

  • In honor of Dan Zaharopol's great work for BEAM*

IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS

  • Art of Problem Solving Inc.*

  • Brilliant.org

  • Edwin Gould Foundation*

  • NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Center for Mathematical Talent*

​

​*Consecutive year donor

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