A Grade 4 student from Cathcart Boulevard Public School is being commended for his impressive skills after placing first in an online international math contest.
The Lambton Kent District School Board (LKDSB) said Samragya Suri ranked first in several categories for his age group during the latest Caribou Math Contest, involving over 8,000 students.
"This extraordinary achievement places Samragya among the brightest young minds globally," read an LKDSB media release. The LKDSB also highlighted Grade 7/8 Teacher Carilyn Piquette, who was instrumental in organizing the Caribou Math Contest at the Sarnia school.
"Thanks to her efforts, students at Cathcart have had the opportunity to participate in this exciting competition, and Samragya's success reflects her commitment to fostering a love of learning and academic excellence," said the LKDSB.
Piquette also credited Samragya's Teacher, Julia Hodgins for how well he did in the contest.
As a math teacher, Piquette said seeing Samragya's test results somewhat felt like winning the lottery. "My heart was really racing," Piquette told Sarnia News Today. "He had gotten first place in the world so I quickly went down to my principal's office, all excited and I wanted him to double-check these results. He looked them over as well and we were pretty thrilled in that moment that we had the top student at our school here."
Piquette said Samragya is a strong student, but math isn't his favourite subject, something they laughed about when sharing the test results with him in the principal's office.
"Mr. Smit asked him if math is his favourite subject and he goes, 'Oh no, math's not my favourite subject, I like reading.' He goes, 'Math's nobody's favourite subject,'" chuckled Piquette. "He was pretty proud of his math. I said, 'What do you think of math now?' He goes, 'I think I like it even more.'" Samragya said his classmates and teachers "were jumping up and down" when the results were shared.
He also said the test was somewhere "in the middle of easy and hard" but he plans to keep participating in the Caribou contests.
Samragya's father, Siddhartha Kumar, said this was actually Samragya's third time placing first in the world in a Caribou Math Contest. His first contest win was in Kindergarten. "He seems to be putting in the hard work," Kumar said.
Over 100 Cathcart students signed up for this recent contest, which involves mathematical puzzles to encourage problem solving and creative thinking.
"I think it's wonderful to showcase how passionate young people are for math, how seriously they take this," Piquette said. "I'm just thrilled to see it grow and to see young people be so successful and a student from our school and our board get top in the world, is pretty amazing."
Piquette said six tests are held throughout the school year, with two more scheduled to take place in the coming months.
Tests are ranked throughout the year and final results for the Caribou Cup will be known at the end of the year.