The Founders
Math Zoom was founded by Dr. Feng Wang, also known as Kevin Wang, along with his wife Ms. Kelly Ren. Dr. Wang was an International Math Olympian, participating in 1985 on China’s team in the International Mathematics Olympiad, which pioneered the team’s high performance in the IMO. Dr. Wang has been very active in the field of Mathematics and Mathematical Education. Dr. Wang devotes his success in math competitions to the education of talented youngsters who have a desire for challenging and interesting math programs. Among his credentials, Dr. Wang was invited by the American Mathematics Competition to coach in the National MOSP 2007 program, and was invited to teach in several other national programs. He was employed at UCI and UCLA on their math faculties. He also has extensive professional experience in the software development industry. Dr. Wang has a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics from Pennsylvania State University.
Ms. Kelly Ren has a B.S. degree in Physics, and a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Her professional career began as a design engineer at IBM. Her visionary and leadership skills led her to positions in business and management in high tech, software and financial services companies. Ms. Ren discovered her passion in human development and education, after the birth of her daughter. Along with Dr. Wang, she started a technology based enrichment program called Kiddie Techie, which rapidly grew to become a successful program in schools, school districts and community enrichment programs in the Los Angeles/ Orange County, California area. Along with her responsibilities as Administrative Director of Math Zoom Academy, Ms. Ren began teaching Math Zoom courses after substituting for Dr. Wang and realized her true calling in working and engaging the interests of younger students. Her logical and clear instruction left both parents and students wanting to come back and learn more.
The Team and the Philosophy
Dr. Wang has always believed that to cultivate a generation to love math, it takes the entire community’s effort. He is fortunate to have highly reputable people, who share the same vision, joining him to make a world class faculty team. To see the list of faculty members, please click here. With extensive real world experiences in both academic and industrial sectors, from the leaders and faculty team, the staff at Math Zoom Academy is aware of the skill sets to make successful leaders. We also know the most effective ways to engage young people and develop these skills. By adopting personal experiences and research results, we help our students maximize their strengths and shine in their strongest areas. At the same time, students will learn to identify and realistically recognize their weaknesses and successfully grow stronger in their weak areas, so they have the potential to stand out on their college applications and become successful professionals in any career endeavor.
The Chronicle
Math Zoom Academy began with the 2006/2007 Winter Camp during the school district’s winter break. Dr. Kevin Wang, joined by his college friend Dr. Zuming Feng, taught that first session. The camp was held at a learning center in Cerritos, California, owned by the Princeton Review. The owner of the Princeton Review, Paul Kanarek, was so impressed by this new program that he contacted Ms. Ren becoming a strong supporter in starting the year-round programs in Irvine, Arcadia and Walnut.
Math Zoom Summer Camp was first held at the University of California in San Diego in 2007. The camp was taught by Dr. Kevin Wang, Dr. Harold Reiter, Dr. Zuming Feng and Andy Niedermaier. Richard Rusczyk, from Art of Problem Solving, gave a lecture on the mathematical applications in finance. The second year of the Math Zoom Summer camp was held at UCLA. The tradition of the team contest at the closing ceremony began that summer. This would soon become the outline format for the Southern California Math Olympiad. This tradition of running the high energy team contest continued at the following year’s summer camp held at Cal Poly Pomona, and will continue at all future summer camps.
