Simmons 8th grader wins national math competition, $20,000
A 13-year-old Simmons Middle School student won a national speed math competition in Washington, D.C., recently, which landed him a $20,000 scholarship.
Allan Yuan, an eighth grader at Simmons, was the winner of the 2022 Raytheon Technology MathCounts National Championship — a competition which drew 224 students from all 50 states and schools that serve the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense.
Almost 25,000 students participated in local online and in-person events that led to the national competition at the Renaissance Washington D.C. Downtown Hotel in May.
Yuan then was invited to appear on the Live with Kelly and Ryan national morning talk show on ABC and show off his math skills in a contest with host Ryan Seacrest.
The Hoover Board of Education recognized Yuan for his national victory on Tuesday night.
In addition to the $20,000 scholarship, he also won a trip to U.S. Space Camp.
"Congratulations to Allan and all the competitors who embraced their love of math and participated in this year's MathCounts National Competition," said Tracey Gray, vice president for communications and external affairs for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, and a MathCounts board membe, in a press release. “The last few years have been challenging for everyone, and it's impressive to see these students' resiliency and passion for problem solving. Their dedication and perseverance show they are on the right path to create the innovations of the future."
Yuan was just one of numerous students and teachers from Hoover public schools congratulated by the Hoover school board Tuesday night for outstanding accomplishments in recent months.
School officials also recognized the Hoover High School Scholars Bowl team for finishing 10th in the nation in the 2022 High School National Championship Tournament put on by National Academic Quiz Tournaments in Atlanta in late May. Hoover High’s B Team also participated in the national tournament and placed 82nd out of 272 teams that qualified, said Sherea Harris-Turner, the school system’s public relations coordinator.
The school board also congratulated Rocky Ridge Elementary fifth-grader Anne Russell for winning the Southeastern swimming championship for girls 10 and younger.
Russell achieved a perfect score of 120 by winning all six of her individual races: the 50-meter butterfly, the 100-meter butterfly, the 50-meter freestyle, the 100-meter freestyle, the 200-meter freestyle and the 400-meter freestyle. That included breaking the Birmingham Swim League’s record in the 50-meter butterfly with a time of 33.47 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 33.72 seconds that was achieved in 1990 for her division.
Russell also helped her teammates from the Birmingham Swim League win two relay events at the Southeastern swim meet, held at the Huntsville Aquatics Center in July with 969 swimmers from Alabama, Tennessee and the Florida panhandle, Harris-Turner said.
The school board also congratulated Traci Ingleright, an enrichment specialist for Hoover City Schools, for this summer receiving a national Leadership in Education Award for her work in environmental education.
The award was given out in Wisconsin in June by Project Learning Tree, which is part of the Sustainable Forest Initiative, a nonprofit international environmental education program that advances environmental literacy, stewardship and career pathways using trees and forests as windows on the world. Read more about that award here.