Amanda Gerken, Hickory Public Schools

Prior to entering her role as AIG specialist, Amanda was a Math 1/8th grade math teacher at Northview Middle School. In that role she cultivated a love of math in her students, encouraged competitive problem solving and inspired students’ love of competition throughout their high school career. While at Northview Middle, her teams consistently ranked in the top 5 places at MathCounts and earned top places at the ASU Level 1 and Lenoir-Rhyne Level 2 contests.

Not only does Amanda cultivate a love of mathematics in her students, she cultivates it in her colleagues as well. One nominator (from a school in the same school system) remarked that Amanda encouraged her to create teams at her own school. Now, even in her current position as AIG specialist, Amanda strives to make both middle schools in her system equally competitive in as many math contests as possible. She meets weekly with groups of students from each grade level at each school who are interested in competing. She makes the practices fun and competitive. The students love these meetings!  Even though the two school teams compete against each other, she always promotes that in the end they are “one team” from Hickory Public Schools, and they cheer each other’s successes.