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 O’Brien, 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 Department’s 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 Who’s 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. Jamie’s 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 Olivet’s 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 Olivet’s 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 Olivet’s 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, [email protected]

Nicholas Boros Assistant Professor, [email protected]

Justin Brown Associate Professor, [email protected]

Lei Cheng Assistant Professor, [email protected]

Daniel Green Professor, [email protected]

Jeremy Lyle Associate Professor, [email protected]

Darl Rassi Assistant Professor, [email protected]

Marci Reynolds Admin. Assistant, [email protected]

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

Department of Mathematics