By Jondi Gumz
As an eighth grader at E.A. Hall Middle School, Joana Rubio was invited to the Bruce Woolpert Algebra Academy, a week of math instruction taught by university professors.
She really likes math.
As a freshman at Watsonville High School, she took two math classes.
That set her up to take calculus as a senior.
Joana Rubio
Next stop: Cabrillo College, on track for civil engineering, and then Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
As a high school student, she was a mentor at the Algebra Academy, getting paid to assist and encourage the eighth graders.
This summer, she’s a paid intern at the Woolpert family company Graniterock at the quarry that produces rock and sand for construction projects.
And she’s a teaching assistant for the Algebra Academy.
As she showed curiosity about math and asked her teachers questions, she found more doors opened for her.
“They’re willing to make you learn more,” she said. “You’re interested, they want you to expand that interest.”
Even though Joana can be the only female in the room, she said she feels welcome, thanks to her mentor, Joe Amparan.
“I get the full experience,” she said.
Joana’s experience is exactly what Woolpert, the Graniterock CEO, was aiming for when he started the Algebra Academy in 2010.
“This is what Bruce wanted,” said Christy Sessions, Algebra Academy executive director.
He wanted to inspire young people to stick with math and science, pursue college education and come back to work for local companies like Graniterock and Driscoll, which ships berries worldwide.
He worked with CSU Monterey Bay Professor Hongde Hu to launch the Algebra Academy, a nonprofit that runs the weeklong program with donations.
The Covid-19 pandemic shut down the program for three years, along with so many other activities, but this summer, it’s fully back with 95 students.
Another positive development: A new location, Joby Aviation, the local company working to launch the first electric air taxi, which could transform commutes and the transportation industry as a whole.
Joby Aviation hosted 26 students; Driscoll, 42, and Graniterock, 27.
The eighth graders see what could be their future workplace and delve deeply into linear equations, which can be used to model any real-world phenomena that involves one variable changing at a constant rate with respect to another variable.
So figuring out income over time,
calculating mileage rates, or predicting profit — all useful information.
At Graniterock, the instructor was Justin Lake, a graduate student in math at UC Santa Cruz.
“Math is something I really like,” said Brianna Vasquez, 13, an eighth grader at Rolling Hills Middle School, who appreciated the lesson. “It’s something that challenges me.”
She’s interested in construction and business and plans to go to Cabrillo College.
She also plans to share her interest in interest in math with her baby sister.
“I would like to teach her to learn to love it,” Brianna said.
Rose Ann Woolpert, Bruce’s widow, wearing an Algebra Academy polo shirt, is a big supporter.
If Bruce were here — he died in 2018 in a boating accident — what would he say?
Rose Ann had an answer: “He’d say wonderful, wonderful.”