CAMP 2021 Staff Page

Welcome to CAMP 2021! Here is our amazing staff.

Japheth Wood
CAMP Director and Math Instructor

I’m Japheth Wood (he/him), the CAMP director, and a math professor at Bard College. I can't believe that we’ve reached our eighth summer of CAMP! We've been recognized a second time by the American Mathematical Society with an Epsilon Award. What a nice honor, on top of our original support from the Dolciani Math Enrichment Program. We are online for a second summer. While it is heartening to see the resiliency of our students and staff to meet online, I am very much looking forward to the time when we can all safely return to the classroom and learn together in person, with online interactions for convenience.

Frances Stern
Co-Director and Math Instructor

My name is Frances Stern (she/her/hers)! I’ve been teaching math at CAMP since the first year, sometimes choosing the program’s math theme. It’s fun to show students math that they don’t see in school. During the school year, I teach math part-time at a private school in New York City. My hobbies include learning to paint & juggle, reading, walking & folk dancing. I’ve written 2 books for teachers and parents called “Adding Math, Subtracting Tension” (for 2 different age ranges of children). They pay as much attention to how to keep out of a fight (what many parents told me is a problem) as they do to math.

Talia Willcott
CAMP Coordinator

Hello! I am Talia, the CAMP Coordinator. I am here to help with any questions or concerns that may come up. I am currently studying math and physics at Bard College and am going to be a senior this upcoming year. I have worked as a tutor with the Bard Math Circle for about two years now and am always looking for new opportunities to connect with people who are interested in math! My hobbies include playing music, making art and solving problems. I love working with students and am dedicated to helping them find their passion! 

Grace Villamil
Senior Staff / Art Instructor

Hello My name Grace (she/her/hers).  I am a multidisciplinary artist, blending different mediums (such as sound, material, drawing and video) to create altogether new forms. I love adventuring into new realms, and discovering inventive ways to express a thought or an idea. I am Filipino-American, I am originally from California ~  lived in NYC for over 15 years and now live in Bearsville, NY.  I love swimming, outer space/the universe and discovering what answers can be found in nature, (so SO many!) This is my first year with the Bard Math Circle Summer CAMP. I am so very excited to meet you &  be your Art Instructor this summer ! Please check out my website for my interstellar installations I created in such places as NYC and Berlin: http://gracevillamil.com/

Karen Blumberg
Senior Staff / CS Instructor

I’m Karen Blumberg, and I’m excited to be a CS teacher at camp this summer! During the year, I’m a Math Teacher and Technology & Innovation Coordinator at The Brearley School in New York City. I work with faculty and students to integrate technology academically, creatively, and responsibly into their classwork, and I help support projects that include programming, web design, robotics, 3D design and printing, digital art, and more. I studied math in college, and I’ve always loved math puzzles. I encourage my students to think of themselves as forensic mathematicians in order to consider all the clues in order to solve a problem efficiently. Over the years, I’ve been introduced to a few different computer languages (Basic, Pascal, C++, Lingo, Logo, Processing, Java Script, Python, etc.) Besides teaching and learning, I love traveling, tasting new foods, and taking photos.

Shuang (Chelsea) Cai
Senior Staff / Art Instructor

My name is Shuang Cai. This is my third year working with Bard Math Circle CAMP, and this year I will be joining as a senior staff on this team. I am currently a rising senior at Bard studying computer science and studio art. I am coding on my own game with Unity. Maybe you can try it out when I’m done?

Anish Anne
CS Instructor

Hi, I’m Anish (he/him/his). I am a rising sophomore in Upstate New York. I am very excited to be part of the CAMP staff this year and have been involved with the Bard Math Circle since taking the AMC 8 exams in 6th grade. Since then I have participated in several other exams as well as been a camper at CAMP. My hobbies include playing tennis, chess, and programming. This year I will be teaching Computer Science at CAMP.

Annie Moulene
Junior Staff / TA / Zoom Hosts

Hi! My name is Annie Moulene (she/her/hers). I am a junior studying Chemistry at Bard. In high school, I loved doing math. I was always one of the students that other students would come to for help since I could help break down the question and show them the steps needed to solve it. I love trying to connect problems in a way that it becomes applicable to the real world since that helped me understand and appreciate math more. I’m excited to be organizing our zoom room and I look forward to helping you solve those challenging problems and helping inspire a new love for math.

Ayanna Battle
Junior Staff / TA / Zoom Hosts

My name is Ayanna Battle (she/her), and I’m a rising senior studying music composition and math at Bard College. This is my first year as a junior staff member at CAMP, so I’m really excited to meet everyone and learn more about CAMP and CAMP culture! For the past couple of summers, I’ve worked at a summer enrichment camp in Atlanta, GA and taught math to rising 8th graders, so I’m looking forward to seeing the similarities and differences between the two programs!

Hadley Parum
Junior Staff / TA / Zoom Hosts

Hello! I’m Hadley Parum (they/them/theirs), and I am a graduate from Bard College (’21) in Psychology and Music. I am excited for my first year as a junior staff member at CAMP, and hope to share an interest in approaching a diverse range of problems with the tools of mathematics and a zeal for questions. I’ve worked extensively as a tutor in areas of math, coding, writing, and music theory, and have found exciting connections between communication,  mathematics, and art. In addition to contributing my own passion towards topics in these areas, I look forward to hearing what most excites others during the program!

Pin-Shan Lai
CAMP Social Media Coordinator

I am Pin-Shan Lai (she/her), the social media coordinator. I am a rising sophomore majoring in political studies and literature at Bard. This is my first time joining CAMP and I am very excited to meet everyone in the upcoming weeks. As a non-math major, I enjoy working with mathematics and science outside of class. I spend my time working on food science and learning about chemicals.  I enjoy cooking, planting vegetables, and reading both fiction and nonfiction novels.

Santanu Antu
Junior Staff / TA / Zoom Hosts

Hello! I am Antu (he/him/his). I am a rising Junior at Bard College, majoring in both Math and Physics. For the last few years, I have invested a lot of time exploring various branches of mathematics and their applications in theoretical physics. My endeavor in this labyrinth of equations and theorems helped me recognize a serious flaw of modern mathematics and physics- the lack of communication. This unpleasant issue is not only obstructing the development of these captivating fields but also leading to mass scientific illiteracy. My goal for the Math CAMP is to communicate some of the complex ideas of math in a nice and simply accessible way. I’m looking forward to organizing the zoom meetings, think about math puzzles, and spread the message- “Mathematics can be fun.”

Shoshi Cohen
Junior Staff / TA / Zoom Hosts

HI! My name is Shoshi (she/her) and I am a senior at Avenues: The World School. I have been participating in Bard Math activities for quite a few years now, including Bard Math Circle and Bard Math CAMP. This year I decided to revisit the fun I had in attending these events by working as a counsellor for Bard Math CAMP! I am so excited for this year's CAMP and I hope it's a blast! 

Tina Giorgadze
Junior Staff / TA / Zoom Hosts
Hi! My name is Tina and I am a rising Junior at Bard college majoring in mathematics and computer science. This is my first year at CAMP, and I am beyond excited to work with students eager to learn mathematics and its applications in art. I have been a Bard Math Circle tutor for two years now. I always have a wonderful time brainstorming new ways to communicate math solutions and concepts. I  look very forward to hosting fun and engaging activities over our Zoom sessions! I am happy to have the opportunity to use my experience to help CAMP participants tackle math puzzles and interesting problems.