Insight<\/em>,\u00a0<\/i>Haas recalled that she came to Smith 25 years ago because she wanted to be part of a college that valued teaching as well as research.<\/p>\nIn that same story, Henle described how Haas is able to transform young women into \u201cmature, confident, successful mathematicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
We caught up with Haas recently to find out more about her teaching and mentoring work. Here\u2019s what she had to say:<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your secret to teaching math and encouraging women, in particular, to pursue an interest in the discipline?<\/strong><\/p>\nHaas:<\/strong> \u201cI think the key is to let the students know that it\u2019s hard for you, too. People believe you either get math, or you don\u2019t. But that\u2019s just not true. All of us have to work at it. It comes as a revelation to students that teachers make mistakes. But you have to be willing to make mistakes to make progress.\u201d<\/p>\nWhere does that idea come from, that you either get math or you don\u2019t?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nHaas: <\/strong>\u201cI\u2019m not entirely sure. I think some of it has to do with language. If you go to France and you don\u2019t understand every word, that\u2019s seen as OK. But that doesn\u2019t seem to be how people think about the language of mathematics. The idea that this isn\u2019t something you\u2019re just born knowing how to do takes some adjusting to\u2014it means suspending your disbelief.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat sparked your interest in mathematics?<\/strong><\/p>\nHaas<\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019ve always had it, I guess. It was a big relief to me when I found out I could do math. That\u2019s not to say that I didn\u2019t have a hard time learning math. Being good at it was in part due to my obstinacy.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat impact has Smith\u2019s Center for Women in Mathematics had on the field?<\/strong><\/p>\nHaas: <\/strong>\u201cOur center is a hallmark program and the real reason I got the mentoring award. You hear about post-baccalaureate programs in medicine. But this is the first one in math. We\u2019ve found that in graduate school, if you didn\u2019t major in math you\u2019re not really in shape for pursuing it in graduate school. The center offers a second opportunity for women who have graduated from college to spend a year at Smith taking classes and doing research that can help get them to graduate school. The first batch of students we worked with received their doctorates last year. In September we had our annual undergraduate conference and many of the alumnae were happy to come back and talk about their experiences with current students. It\u2019s a way to make lasting connections in the field.\u201d<\/p>\nHow are things looking for women in mathematics?<\/strong><\/p>\nHaas: \u201c<\/strong>The situation is better, but the problems are not fixed. The higher up you go in the field, the lower the proportion of women. So math majors start out being 50\/50 men and women. But then the proportion of women in the top 10 percent of graduate schools is lower, and the proportion of female faculty members in math is lower still. At every stage, women drop down or drop out. One of the things we\u2019ve done at Smith is to build a strong community for women in mathematics.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat does it mean for you to win the Humphreys Prize?<\/strong><\/p>\nHaas<\/strong>: \u201cIt\u2019s lovely! The prize is named for an alumna who got her master\u2019s in math before we had a post-baccalaureate program. It\u2019s a lovely parallel, getting an award named for someone who did what we\u2019re trying to do now. My colleagues and former colleagues are doing things at Smith that are leading to student success. It all comes from that support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Her colleagues say Ruth Haas, Achilles Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, has what it takes to spark a passion for the subject in her students. \u201cShe is sensitive, caring\u2014and tough,\u201d says Jim Henle, Myra M. Simpson Professor of Mathematics and Statistics. \u201cShe has been an outstanding mentor to women in mathematics.\u201d In fact, Henle estimates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12048","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12048"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12092,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12048\/revisions\/12092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}