The Catalan teenagers who want to save mathematics

"My uncle is an engineer, and since I was little, he encouraged me to love mathematics. Now I'd like to pass on this passion," explains Julia. Three other teenagers are sitting next to her. "I've always loved it when you're faced with a problem and don't know where to start, and then you end up seeing that it has a logical solution. It's really nice to see how it turns out," says Claudia enthusiastically. Their passion for mathematics has united fifty girls, all secondary school students, with a common goal: to pass on their fascination with science to the little ones, just as those close to them had passed it on to them.

Their union is no coincidence. All of them, in one way or another, have had contact with the Catalan Mathematical Society, whether by winning a prize in the Cangur tests, participating in the Fem Matemàtiques competition, or as one of the "mad about math" on the program Mad about Science. "We put out a call to girls who enjoy mathematics, and it's been a success," Montserrat Alsina, president of the Catalan Mathematics Society (SCM), told ARA.

The call was made within the framework of the Ambassadors of Mathematics project, organized by the SCM as a subsidiary of the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC). The initiative was launched on May 12 (International Day of Women in Mathematics) with a pilot group of around fifty high school students. They have already begun working to ensure that, for the next academic year, the adolescents themselves will go to primary schools to explain, firsthand, their positive experiences with this discipline.

Let the message not only reach girls

Although the program will be led by girls, Alsina explains that "the message is common for both boys and girls." In fact, she insists that "it's just as important for girls to see that they can do it, as it is for boys to see that girls also do math activities and can be competitive."

For now, an initial in-person meeting has already been held so that the 50 ambassadors could meet each other and get to know each other. The meeting also provided the opportunity for the teenagers to meet other key figures, such as Helena Arias, who participated in the Hypatia II mission, or the winner of the 2024 National Research Award for Young Talent, Xavier Ros Oton.

Now, the project leaders hope to receive support from the Department of Equality and Feminism, which has already been informed, and to count on the complicity and participation of the mathematics faculties of the different Catalan universities, as well as other entities and associations that wish to collaborate.