University-based summer camp builds confidence, math skills for Boston pupils

Poet Magdalena Gomez, left, works with Northeastern President Joseph Aoun
and pupil Tyler Willock during a group exercise capping the five-week
MathPower summer program at the university. JIM CHIAVELLI

More than 80 Boston middle-school students recently graduated from a Northeastern University-based summer program with a deeper understanding of mathematics.

The students will be entering grades six through eight, primarily in city-run or charter schools Boston’s Roxbury, Hyde Park, Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods.

The five-week Algebra Plus Summer Camp 2007, held on campus, marked more than a decade of providing advanced math skills to Boston youths through a summer program, according to Cathy Livingston, executive director of MathPower.

In addition to the mathematics focus, the 2007 camp worked with pupils on developing aspirations, becoming engaged with one’s community and acquiring a love of learning, according to Livingston. 

University President Joseph Aoun joined the 84 pupils during their graduation exercises, explaining to them the importance of getting into college.

Aoun also joined the group for an exercise in which pairs of pupils acted out emotions and moods, under the direction of poet and facilitator Magdalena Gomez. The president was paired with pupil Tyler Willock in the complicated, silent, exercise.

MathPower was founded in 1989 as Boston Algebra in Middle School, changing its name in 1998 and focusing  more tightly on skills needed to succeed in the mandatory Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System testing. The group also arranges parent workshops to support pupils’ families in making choices about courses of study.

The nonprofit organization is based in Northeastern’s School of Education.