New faculty: Jennifer Paulhus
Mount Holyoke College’s newest mathematics professor, Jennifer Paulhus, is driven to showcase mathematics in a way that can make students enjoy the subject, even if they have never liked it.
Jennifer Paulhus, Mount Holyoke College’s newest math professor, aims to expand the field of mathematics to students who may not have had an interest in the past.
“[I am really] focusing on getting students to appreciate and enjoy math as much as possible because that’s not always their experience before college,” Paulhus said. “If they take math classes with me, they leave [those classes] feeling like they don’t hate math and that maybe they even enjoy it a little bit.”
Paulhus earned her bachelor’s degree at Holy Cross and her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. She previously taught at Kansas State University, Villanova and, most recently, Grinnell College in Iowa. Through her passion for teaching, she helps her students find a love for math that they did not know they had.
When asked what excites her about the classroom, Paulhus responded, “Watching students grow as they learn more math, just watching the realizations that they can do math and that they get excited, frustrated too, but also excited, and just watching students go from their first year to their senior year and [seeing] how much they grow.”
Paulhus is currently working on an online database of mathematical objects; a major goal of this work is to ensure the data are easily searchable. She is also working with collaborators from across the globe to understand how symmetries of certain mathematical objects work.
Paulhus joined the faculty at Mount Holyoke College to help increase diversity in the professional side of mathematics.
“It was a really great opportunity, and the department is full of vibrant, excited faculty members, [who are] particularly exciting … to work with,” she said. “I mean, I think a lot of it is working at a women’s college that’s gender diverse. But just having a chance to have women in math, there’s still issues with who does math and who excels in the professional world [of] math, and having an opportunity to teach lots of students and hopefully help many of them go on [to do] cool things, I think that was another big factor in coming here.”
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Mount Holyoke College is close-knit, and the collaborative nature of the department’s work means there will be plenty of time for reflection and connection.
“In these disciplines, we tend to teach across all the courses. So, we each take turns teaching different classes. So, having other people I can talk to to say, ‘How did you do this? What do you want to do with the class?’ those sorts of things are great,” she said.
Paulhus has seen students grow in mathematics throughout her teaching career. According to Paulhus, figuring out how to grow with students has allowed her to update her classroom. Her research involves collaborators in Chile, an area she is hoping to help bring students into.
“Maybe there’s an opportunity to bring somebody here for a little bit to visit and meet the students here,” she said.
