(COVINGTON, La.) — For 14 of the last 15 years that Susan Jordan has been teaching at St. Paul’s, the school chapter of the National Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Honor Society has had a student representative on the Louisiana MAΘ state board. This year’s SPS representative is senior John Cresson.

“I definitely hope that we continue to hold this prestigious position of having students on the state board,” Jordan said.

Each student that joins the society has to have completed five semesters of high school math as a minimum and have an overall grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale and have only A’s and B’s for semester grades in math courses. All members of LaMAΘ must be invited to join.

Members of LaMAΘ are able to take part in math tournaments, but “as far as tournament participation, I insist that each member go to at least one competition and tutor three to five hours each semester,” Jordan said.

Students wanting to compete in the State Convention in the Spring must go to two competitions other than the competitions that are held at SPS.

This is Cresson’s second year on the state board of LaMAΘ as a governor for district 3 (St. Tammany Parish). To be on the state board, one must be a member in good standing and be voted in by the members of all schools in the district.

Along with the governor for each of the districts, there are officers, including vice presidents, co-presidents, and presidents.

School officers include co-presidents Luke Avenel and Ryan Meraux; the vice president position is held by Ethan Desforges, and the president is Yehia Elkersh. Rutger Fury is the secretary.

The election to be on the state board is held on the final night of the state competition. The governors are given the task of coming up with the theme for the competition and choosing door prizes for the convention.

This year, the induction ceremony of the St. Paul’s chapter of LaMAΘ was held on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, at 7 p.m. in the SPS Chapel. Along with LaMAΘ officers, President Bro. Ray Bulliard, FSC, gave a short presentation before the invited students received their official membership certificates.

(Photos by Karen Hebert)