By Roy Kwon

Staff Writer

  Intriguing. Exciting. Logical. Seldom few would use such words to describe a challenging subject such as math. However, that is not the case for senior Elton Chan. With determination to always strive for the best Chan overcomes the barriers that a student uninterested in math may have.

  Chan already has in mind his future job, which is to become an actuary; people that calculate insurance risks with statistics which would perfectly fit combining math and the real world. In order to prepare for the career path of an actuary, Chan has taken the necessary measures to pursue it.

   Finding his career path that will be able to utilize his love for numbers in real life was made relatively easy. Thanks to his friend’s dad, he was told that becoming an actuary would be a suitable job path to be able to apply Chan’s mathematical skills in real life.

  From when he first started high school, he has taken rigorous courses with challenging work such as: Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics, AP Calculus AB and BC, as well as (AP) Physics C. Most students would see such classes as daunting, but Chan tackled these classes head on.

  “I’ve always liked math and using it in real life was really intriguing to me,” explained Chan.

  In addition to the multitude of classes he has taken, Chan partook in summer programs outside of school to further his craft, such as, the Finance and Accounting in the Digital Economy Program at Long Island University.

  Chan accredits much of his career choice, to his AP calculus AB class teacher who showed his class a tv show called Numb3rs, which was about using math in real life. Chan said that this really helped grow his passion for arithmetic.

  “ … Being able to analyze risks and calculating if things are good investments using stats of people’s lives and their habits seems pretty rad,” exclaimed Chan.

  With all the hard work Chan has put in to recognise his dreams, his future is looking risk free as he plans to continue his studies by majoring in applied mathematics in hopes of becoming an actuary.