MONTEGO BAY, St James – Tayna Martin and her husband Howard are proud parents.

The couple’s 16-year-old son Austin has continuously exceeded their expectations, with his latest “win” coming in the form of being named a member of the 2023 Jamaica Mathematical Olympiad team.

Austin, a student at Herbert Morrison Technical High School in St James, was one of four Jamaican students chosen to represent the island at the XXV Central American and Caribbean Mathematical Olympiad (OMCC) held in El Salvador last month.

Tanya told the Jamaica Observer that her family has been beaming with pride after seeing the commitment and determination shown by Austin.

“I was excited for him because he had to do almost three months of rigorous training. They participated in the Jamaica Math Olympiad, and Austin came out as the top student for grade 10 in Jamaica,” Tanya said.

She noted that after completing that competition, their family was contacted by The University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI) to enquire “if we would be willing to have Austin attend training for the Regional Math Olympiad in El Salvador”.

They were overjoyed when Austin accepted the offer, Tanya told the Sunday Observer.

But that was not without another round of commitments, she said.

“We are all the way in Montego Bay, so he had to go to Kingston every weekend for three months to do the preparations. It was a lot of commitment and he never missed one class. Sometimes I would ask him if he was tired [and wanted] to stay home, but he would say, ‘No mommy, I want to go’. He was fully committed to it,” said a proud Tanya.

“Within the last month of training, they told us that he had made the team, so we were happy because there were 14 students and they only chose four kids to make the team,” she added.

Lauding her son for his hard work, Tanya told the Sunday Observer that he has always done extremely well at mathematics. The boy said that he is hoping to become an astrophysicist, an actuary or a marine scientist in the future.

“I think he is a natural at math and he has always preferred quantitative subjects as opposed to the English language and literature. He prefers math, chemistry and physics,” she explained.

The Jamaica team, however, came up short of the win in El Salvador, but Tanya is beyond proud of the work that all four students did for their country. She pointed out that with Jamaica being the only English-speaking country at the competition, the students should be praised for their participation.

“They represented Jamaica and they were the only English-speaking country there. I know they didn’t come up at the top, but I think they were hit with some challenges because they do not speak the language. They did not have much interpretation for them, but despite all of that, I think they did well,” said Tanya.

Lecturer at UWI Ajani Ausaru told the Sunday Observer that the university was pleased with the work done by the four team members during both mathematical competitions.

According to Ausaru, the students chosen were “standouts”.

“The team comprises [of] the country’s brightest mathematics talent 16 years old or younger. Team members were standouts from the Jamaican Mathematical Olympiad competition, organised by the Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Science and Technology at UWI, Mona Campus, which culminated in May 2023,” the lecturer said.

In addition to Austin, the team included Joshua Walcott and Cruz Caine both of Campion College, and Jo’Anna Hill of Montego Bay High School.

In the meantime, Ausaru said that Jamaica has been participating in the Mathematical Olympiad since 2010, and “continues to be the only English-speaking country in this year’s event”.

“This team competed in the XXV Central American and Caribbean Mathematical Olympiad (OMCC) held from July 21-29, in El Salvador. The students were accompanied by Sam McDaniel and [myself], lecturers in the Mathematics Department. El Salvador was the host country and organisers this year,” Ausaru told the Sunday Observer.

This year’s event saw 12 countries sending their top mathematics talents to El Salvador. Among the countries were Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico.