As the scent of pie lingers in the air, two students stand in the center of the room, facing one another in the ultimate battle of mathematical memorization. One student takes a deep breath, then begins to recite: “3.14159265358979323846…” as the other prepares to counter. This was the Pi Day celebration, hosted by Westwood’s chapter of Mu Alpha Theta (MAO). From the Pi Day celebration and pancake social to student-taught advanced math lessons and student-teacher “67” videos, MAO President Adriana Cheng ‘26 pushed the boundaries of what MAO was capable of and set a precedent for future officers.
Adriana’s advanced math journey started around seventh grade, when she qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) through a high score on the American Mathematics Competition (AMC). With her close connection to high school competition math, Adriana discovered MAO, which would become the defining club of her senior year.
“When I was freshman, I did a lot of math competitions,” Adriana said. “I had a lot of friends in MAO that were older. I really liked engaging with the math community beyond competitions, though, so I really liked when we host[ed] math circles. My motivation for becoming MAO president was I wanted to increase the engagement of the math community at Westwood through more things like math circles.”
Over years of preparation for math competitions hosted by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), Adriana ultimately achieved the final and most difficult tier of MAA’s competitions during her junior year: qualifying for United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) after scoring in the top 500 of high schoolers nationwide on the AIME.
“I always thought USAMO was a dream,” Adriana said. “When I found out that I made it, I was really happy. I was really surprised and really grateful because I really like doing proofs. I went to [Honors Summer Math Camp], which is in San Antonio, and MathILY, which was at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania. Both of them were proof-style camps, and they were both five or six weeks long, so I got a lot of opportunities to dive into proof-based math.”
Her drive to increase the activity of the club and create a stronger math community manifested in her encouragement of math circles. Adriana’s dedication resulted in a passionate lesson from MAO member William Langdon ‘26, who taught members about abstract algebra. Spurred by the community’s activity, MAO members competed in a pi-reciting competition during the Pi Day celebration, with Justin Liu ‘27 winning by reaching digits in the mid-20s.
“We brought pie [and we had] any member who wanted to participate stand in the room and recite the digits of pi and then we counted what we got to,” second place winner and MAO Co-Vice President Yuegelica Yeong ‘26 said. “When I was younger, for fun, I would memorize the digits of pi. I think I got to a 100, but since it’s been years, I was a bit rusty so I only made it to around 20 [digits].”
Amid MAO traditions like the pancake social in collaboration with French Honor Society, pie at the Pi Day celebration, and math competitions at Texas A&M University and University of Houston, Adriana’s innovative philosophy as president took inspiration from the game theory algorithm “divide and conquer”, focusing on fostering a sense of club engagement.
“She made sure the entire officer team was engaged with all the events that were going on [and] all the members were able to contribute something, whether it was bringing items or volunteering,” Yeong said. “A lot of times, as the year goes on, everyone gets busy, so we don’t have any events, but [this year during] second semester, Adriana kept pushing for us to host events and make them actually happen.”
A prime example of Adriana’s admirable push for club activity was the highly successful cake-cutting event, attracting over 30 students during Flex — record-high turnout for MAO. This event gave students hands-on experience in game theory’s “last diminisher” method, describing the most optimal way to cut a cake to ensure all parties are equally satisfied. Afterward, members could eat the cake.
“The math we did was expanding [last diminisher method] beyond two people,” Adriana said. “[In] a group of n people, we want each person to believe they received at least 1/n of the cake. You let a person cut a slice they believe is 1/n of the cake, and each person after that can reduce the slice if they believe that it’s more than 1/n. The last person to make a cut is the one that receives that slice. Then, you continue it for the rest.”
Uniquely, MAO’s most public-facing endeavor this year was their brief but viral stint on social media. Proposed by Event Coordinator and incoming President Aaron Fan ‘27, this two-part Instagram Reel series featured teachers doing the “67” hand gesture and amassed over 177,000 views. The competition math community’s proximity to brain rot, from mainstream brain rot to original brain rot terms, made these videos appeal to an audience broader than Westwood students.
“A lot of people in the math community are pretty big fans of brain rot,” Adriana said. “A lot of the math community uses a lot of very niche slang, like orz and 1434, which means ‘I lost the game’. General brain rot also comes quite naturally. A lot of my friends from summer camp like 67.”
As she looks forward to the future of MAO, Adriana’s membership and eventual presidency not only expanded her network of like-minded individuals, but enhanced her math knowledge in ways that competition math could not. While she has wrapped up her MAO presidency, Adriana’s math journey will not end here. She plans to pursue computer science and math at the University of Texas at Austin as a prestigious Turing Scholar, all while keeping her MAO roots intact.
“When I became president, having more authority over the club made it easier for me to get my ideas out there,” Adriana said. “[In] engaging with the math community at Westwood, not only have I met a lot of cool people, but I’ve learned a lot that I’ll definitely use in college.”
