Department of Mathematics - Olivet Nazarene Universityacademics.olivet.edu/math/sites/default/files/FA2015 FINAL.pdf · Fall 2015 No. 9 at Olivet Nazarene University Greetings from

Fall 2015 No. 9

Greetings from the Math Department at Olivet! It is hard to believe that it is nearing the holidays as I write this letter. Another year has started and is nearly half over already. Every year is different and brings its own set of challenges, but we are grateful that the Lord is with us through the good days and the not so good days. This is our 9th year of producing a newsletter for you, our alumni, and we hope you enjoy it. It is a nice opportunity for us to reflect on the past year and to continue to look forward to the future. For you, we hope it provides a way to help you keep in touch with Olivet and the Department of Mathematics. This year we welcome two new faculty, Jeremy Lyle and Darl Rassi, who are featured later in the newsletter. At the end of last year, Darcy Ireland resigned to accompany her husband Kyle as he takes on a new role at John Brown University in Arkansas. Even with the addition of a seventh faculty member, we are struggling to offer enough sections because of the tremendous growth in Engineering. But as I try to constantly remind myself, these are good problems to have and the alternative is far worse. While we mail out the newsletters we also send it out electronically so please make sure that we have a current e-mail address for you so that you will not miss any of the future issues. Also if you have information that you would like to share with our department and your fellow alumni, please pass it on to us. We will include an alumni news column whenever we have appropriate information to share.

May God continue to bless you as you serve Him in this world. In Christ,

Dale K. Hathaway Chair, Department of Mathematics

Dr. Justin Brown, Dr. Dale Hathaway, Ryan Smith 15, Dr. Nicholas Boros, Dr. Daniel Green, Dr. Lei Cheng

The Newsletter for the

at Olivet Nazarene University Department of Mathematics

The Department of Mathematics has established a fund to support scholarships for current students. This is the only Foundation scholarship that focuses on majors in the Department of Mathematics. One of our recent recipients gratefully expressed, It is such an honor to have received this award and recognition. Thank you again for the generous scholarship support. I will continue to work hard at Olivet so that I may represent my school well and gain knowledge to help my future career. A special thank you to those who have made a gift to the Mathematics scholarship over the past few years. With your help, the scholarship fund has now passed $26,000 as of 6-30-15. Would you like to contribute to the scholarship fund and make a difference in the life of an Olivet mathematics student? Please send your contributions to:

Office of Development Attn: The Department of Mathematics Scholarship Fund

Olivet Nazarene University Foundation One University Avenue, Box 6003

Bourbonnais, IL 60914

Congratulations to our 2015 graduates : Lydia Bilyeu, B.S. Actuarial Science/Accounting/Economics and Finance, staff auditor, Crowe Horwath LLP, Chicago, Illinois Amelia Claus, B.S. Mathematics /International Studies, Crown Point High School, Crown Point, Indiana Ashley Coon, B.S. Mathematics Education, Bloomington High School, Bloomington, Illinois Jessica (Dieken) Arellano, B.S. Mathematics Education, Fulton High School, Fulton, Illinois Jonathan Fightmaster, B.S. Mathematics Education, Instructor, Department of General Studies, Olivet Nazarene University Katie Fitzgerald, B.S. Mathematics, World Vision internship, Washington D.C. Sam Gifford, B.S. Actuarial Science, Actuarial Position, Allstate Insurance Company, Northbrook, Illinois Austin Kennell, B.S. Mathematics Education, Iroquois West High School, Gilman, Illinois Liz Koch, B.S. Mathematics Education, Harrison High School, Colorado Springs, Colorado Diane McManus, B.S. Mathematics Education, Kankakee High School, Kankakee Illinois Colleen OBrien, B.S. Mathematics David Parker, B.S. Actuarial Science Kim Rothacker, B.S. Mathematics Education, Pekin Community High School, Pekin, Illinois Emily Sheldon, B.S. Mathematics/Chemistry Ryan Smith, B.S. Mathematics Education, Graduate work at Olivet Nazarene University in Christian Education Congratulations to Katie Fitzgerald, the Departments Outstanding Graduate for 2015. Katie, a mathematics major, is from Duncanville, Texas. Katie Fitzgerald 15

Congratulations to David Leman 16, Drew Philson 17, Micah Plank 16, Robert Wagner 16 and Sarah Walmsley 16, who all recently passed the Actuarial P exam. Congratulations to Jonathan Fightmaster 15 and Ryan Smith 15 , who were elected to Whos Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges for 2015. Congratulations to our teams that participated in the ACCA Calculus Contest in April. Our top team of Elizabeth Hein 17, Felicia Baer 18, and Jamie Walker 16 took 5th place out of 27 teams from 10 schools. Congratulations to Zachery Rivett 16 who scored 3 points on the 2014 Put-nam Exam. This is the second year in a row in which Zach has scored points. Zach is a computer science/mathematics major from Howell, Michigan. Congratulations to Jamie Walker 16 and Dr. Lei Cheng for being selected for the

2015 Elbert Pence and Fanny Boyce Undergraduate Summer Research Awards. Honoring two former Olivet professors, Elbert Pence (physics) and Fannie Boyce (mathematics), and funded by alumni and friends of Olivet, these research grants allow students to spend 10-weeks doing full-time re-search under the mentorship of ONU faculty. Jamies project was titled An Analysis of the Endemic Equilibria in the Three Class of Model of the Impact of Student-Teacher Ratio and Interactions on Student/Teacher Performance. Jamie is a Mathematics Education major from Mokena, Illinois.

Congratulations to Ryan Smith 15 who was the 2015 recipient of the Robert Milner award presented to one outstanding male at graduation each year. The se-lection is based on campus citizenship, scholarship, leadership, and general achievement in college activities. Ryan is the third departmental winner of one of

the two graduation awards over the last three years! Ryan, a math education major, is from Belleville, Illinois. Congratulations to Jessica Dirkse 16, who was crowned the Home-coming Queen during Olivets 2015 Homecoming Weekend! Jessica is a Mathematics Education major originally from Downers Grove, Illinois. Congratulations to Dr. Justin Brown and his wife, Jody, as they welcomed their third child, Callen Edward, on June 1, 2015. Callen joins big brothers Owen and Evan.

Jessica Dirkse 16

Callen Brown

Ryan Smith 15

Zach Rivett 16

Jamie Walker 16

New members of Olivets Mu chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon. Back row: Andrew Tipton, Scott Fischer, Taylor Schott,

Caleb Strand, Zach Rivett (student chapter president), and Neil Smith. Middle row: Jared Dennis, Emily

Shelden, Elizabeth Nellis, and Brittany Sherwood. Front row: Jessica Anderson, Loren Crawford, Jessica

Dirkse, Jamie Walker and Ryan Kennell. Not pictured: Zane DeBeck, Holly Harlow, Lyndsey Herndon,

Elizabeth Koch, Diane McManus, and David Powers.

Pi Mu Epsilon, the national mathematics honor society, inducted new members to Olivets Mu Chapter during the spring semester. The new student members, listed alphabetically: Jessica Anderson 16, Mathematics/Actuarial Science, Frankfort, Illinois Loren Crawford 15, Engineering, Lima, Ohio Zane DeBeck 16, Engineering, East Tawas, Michigan Jared Dennis 15, Engineering, Fairmont, West Virginia Jessica Dirkse 16, Mathematics Education, Downers Grove, Illinois Scott Fischer 16, Engineering, Olathe, Kansas Holly Harlow 17, Mathematics Education/Actuarial Science, Joliet, Illinois Lyndsey Herndon 17, Mathematics Education, Pinckney, Michigan Ryan Kennell 17, Mathematics/Actuarial Science, Eureka, Illinois Elizabeth Koch 15, Mathematics Education, Chesterton, Indiana Diane McManus 15, Mathematics Education, Manteno, Illinois Elizabeth Nellis 16, Mathematics, Ottawa, Illinois David Powers 15, Engineering, Colorado Springs, Colorado Taylor Schott 16, Engineering, Zion, Illinois Emily Sheldon 15, Mathematics/Chemistry, Freeland, Michigan Brittany Sherwood 17, Business Management/Accounting/Economics and Finance, Pekin, Illinois Neil Smith 15, Engineering, Hoopeston, Illinois Caleb Strand 16, Engineering, East, Indiana Andrew Tipton 17, Engineering, Meadeville, Pennsylvania Jamie Walker 16, Mathematics Education, Mokena, Illinois

Jeremy Lyle joined Olivet's full-time faculty in 2015. He graduated from MidAmerica Nazarene University with a B.A. in mathematics, physics, and computer science in 2002. He completed his masters and doctorate at Clemson University, finishing in 2008. His research interests lie in graph theory, combinatorics, and graph algo-rithms. For the past seven years, Dr. Lyle taught mathematics at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. While there, he taught courses as part of the graduate and undergraduate program, but also served as coordinator for the college algebra and interme-diate algebra courses. Jeremy is married to Tracy, who teaches fourth grade at Noel Levasseur Elementary School in the Bourbonnais School District. They reside in Bourbonnais with their three children, Emily (7), Alex (5), and Austin (4). In his free time, he enjoys playing the harmonica and spending time with his family.

Jeremy Lyle and family

Darl Rassi joined Olivet's full-time faculty in 2015. He has a strong interest in preparing teachers for high school math education. "I'm very excited about math education!" he says. "I'm a Dan Meyer fan. I think teaching math is one of the most rewarding and challenging careers."

His professional experience includes nine years of teaching pre-algebra through calculus, as well as dual credit finite and statistics at the high school level. He has also served as a consultant/workshop presenter for the Iroquois-Kankakee Regional Office of Education, presenting at several profes-sional conferences on variety of topics, including "Can You Build the Best Boat?" and "Gain Mathematical Power in Cal-culus through Multiple Representations." In 2014, one of his students named him as her Most Influential Teacher as part of her award through the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. He is a member of the National Council of Teachers of Math-ematics (NCTM). In his leisure time, he enjoys reading, singing, working on home construction projects, hiking and camping. During his Bible study time, he especially appreciates the book of Romans. He and his wife, Janelle, are the parents of four children: Kyla (7), Layna (6), Trevin (2) and Treyson (1).

Darl Rassi and family

If your company or organization offers internship opportunities for college students, please let us know. We would love to connect you with one of our qualified department majors.

Upon completion of my junior year at Olivet, I moved back home to Ohio and interned at Western & Southern Financial Group. Western & Southern is a Fortune 500 life insurance company that is based in the heart of downtown Cincinnati. During my internship, I gained valuable knowledge of what it means to be an actuary and how to interact with others in the workplace.

Heading into the internship, I had no idea what to expect. I knew that I would be networking and being introduced to connections

that could be important for finding a job after college. My work mostly consisted of working with databases, especially Microsoft SQL. This was new to me as I thought actuaries would rely on math more but in fact, they rely on modeling with computers using actuarial concepts. One of my main projects was to gather as-sumptions that the actuarial department uses in modeling their products. This was very beneficial for my understanding of how insurance works and I found that the assignments that I worked on were stimulating and relevant to the profession.

The summer went exceptionally well and I was offered a full-time position to work at Western & Southern after graduation! I believe that I thrived in the work environment this summer because of the knowledge that I have obtained from studying at Olivet. I am thankful for my professors and the opportunity to attend this institution as it has properly prepared me for life after Olivet.

Over the last year, Olivet mathematics students have participated in a variety of internship opportunities. Some of those included: Nathan Benz 16, software engineer internship at Groupon, Chicago, Illinois Katie Fitzgerald 15, operations research internship at World Vision, Washington, D.C. Keila Galloway 16, claims process analyst at State Farm, Richardson, Texas Lyndsey Herndon 17, summer school internship at Novi High School, Novi, Michigan Zach Rivett 16, systems analyst internship at State Farm, Bloomington, Illinois Robert Wagner 16, actuarial internship at Western & Southern Financial Group, Cincinnati, Ohio; Robert secured a full time job with the company, beginning after graduation, May 2016. Sarah Walmsley 16, actuarial internship at Reinsurance Group of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Sarah secured a full time job with the company, beginning after graduation, May 2016.

Robert Wagner 16

Robert Wagner 16 on a river-boat on the Ohio River, Cincinnati, OH (shown here with his girlfriend Aimee Gauss 16)

NONPROFIT ORG.

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

BOURBONNAIS, IL

PERMIT NO. 61

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ONUMath or visit our department website at http://academics.olivet.edu/math/

Dale Hathaway Department Chair, hathaway@olivet.edu

Nicholas Boros Assistant Professor, nboros@olivet.edu

Justin Brown Associate Professor, jbrown7@olivet.edu

Lei Cheng Assistant Professor, lzcheng@olivet.edu

Daniel Green Professor, dgreen@olivet.edu

Jeremy Lyle Associate Professor, sjlyle@olivet.edu

Darl Rassi Assistant Professor, dsrassi@olivet.edu

Marci Reynolds Admin. Assistant, mlreynolds@olivet.edu

Olivet Nazarene University One University Ave., Box 6057 Bourbonnais, IL 60914

Department of Mathematics