By Hawaiian Electric

In a field of 38 competitors from middle schools across Oʻahu, Maui and Hawaiʻi Island, Minjae Seo and Felicity Zhou of Washington Middle along with Jared Lo of Punahou and Taylor Ann Agena of Highlands Intermediate excelled in both the written and oral portions of the State MATHCOUNTS® competition to emerge as the top “mathletes” during the half-day event held at Kamehameha Schools on March 10, 2018.

The top school, determined by individual team members’ scores, was Washington Middle whose coach, Sung Park, will accompany all four students to the National MATHCOUNTS, May 12-15, 2018, in Washington, D.C. where they will represent Hawaiʻi. 2018 marks the eighth time Coach Park has led the Hawaiʻi MATHCOUNTS team.

Established in 1983, MATHCOUNTS is a national enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement. During the events, student “mathletes” in grades 6, 7 and 8 compete in a series of timed rounds as individuals and as team members to demonstrate their math problem-solving, plus analytical and logical thinking skills.

In the written portion of the math competition, the top 10 students with the highest scores were (10^th) Kyle Ching, ʻIolani; (9^th) Remi Kuba, Punahou; (8^th) Felicity Zhou, Washington Middle; (7^th) Tamlyn Horiuchi, Highlands Intermediate; (6^th) Noah Chung, Punahou; (5^th), Jordan Wong, Washington Middle; (4^th) Adam Inamasa, Washington Middle; (3^rd) Taylor Ann Agena, Highlands Intermediate); (2^nd) Jared Lo, Punahou; and in first place was Minjae Seo, Washington Middle.

In the oral competition, students have a maximum of 45 seconds to answer math questions without the use of a calculator. Agena placed fourth, Lo came in third with Zhou in second while Seo won first place, effectively qualifying them for the Hawaiʻi team.

Team awards also were handed to (8^th) Seabury Hall, (7^th) Waiakea Intermediate, (6^th) Kamehameha Middle Schools, (5^th) Highlands Intermediate, (4^th) Kapolei Middle, (3^rd) ʻIolani, (2^nd) Punahou and (1^st) Washington Middle.

For more than 30 years, Hawaiian Electric has been the presenting sponsor of the Oʻahu Chapter and State MATHCOUNTS competitions through a grant from the HEI Charitable Foundation to the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers Educational Foundation (HSPEEF) which organizes both events with support from Kamehameha Schools and the Hawaiʻi Department of Education. HSPEEF is a nonprofit whose mission is to provide support for educational programs that will further opportunities for Hawaiʻi’s future engineers.

For more information on the local MATHCOUNTS events, write to Barry Nakamoto at [email protected]

Photo by Hawaiian Electric

Bob Isler, Hawaiian Electric vice president-power supply, with the Hawaiʻi MATHCOUNTS® team: Coach Sung Park (Washington Middle), Taylor Ann Agena (Highlands Intermediate), Jared Lo (Punahou), Felicity Zhou and Minjae Seo (Washington Middle), and Barry Nakamoto of the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers Educational Foundation, which organizes the middle school math competition sponsored by the Hawaiian Electric Companies. The students will represent Hawaiʻi in May at the National MATHCOUNTS in Washington, D.C. where they will compete for the title of National Champion in a field of 224 “mathletes” from across the nation.

Photo by Hawaiian Electric

Highlands Intermediate alumna Rosella Motoki, an energy contract manager at Hawaiian Electric, with the Highlands Intermediate team that participated in the state MATHCOUNTS: Coach Mark Yamashita, Tamlyn Horiuchi, Ken Hirohata, Taylor Ann Agena, Natalie Pham and Coach David Colmenares. The team captured fifth place at the competition and Agena earned a spot on the Hawaiʻi team heading to the Nationals.