Prize Recipient

Jeremy Jones
Columbia University

Background:

I was born in 1991 in Alexandria, VA. Virginia has been my home my entire life. I am the 2nd of 3 children and the only boy. My parents bought their first home in 1993, after emigrating from Sierra Leone in 1987. I have many memories in this house, as Im sure will be the case with my current house after I move. I took an early interest in trying to educate myself, managing to get past Dr. Seuss and finger counting and on to novels and basic multiplication by age 4. Math has always been simple for me, except for Geometry. I was usually well ahead of my classmates throughout when it came to math. But since I attended 3 different schools for 4th-6th grades, the last being brand new, I wasnt given the opportunity to take Algebra 1 in 7th and in 8th grade. I attended the brand new South County Secondary School in Lorton. Upset that I was placed in 8th grade math, I appealed to my teacher and was able to get moved up. It was there that I earned my reputation for ruining curves. I was unsatisfied with the rigor of the standard courses and continuously increased my course load each year and it proved to be my downfall. I nevertheless was mostly successful, and took a liking to the sarcastic nature of my physics teacher. AP Physics was a welcome challenge, and really opened me to possible careers based on physics.