Senior Matthew Kegley received the Chesapeake Math Department’s work-study scholarship this fall.

“I was really surprised and happy, glad that they considered me for the scholarship” said Kegley, who had to send in various test scores relating to math to qualify. “My parents were also very happy.”

“Math is cool,” said Kegley, on why he applied for the scholarship. “I like math and I’m interested in it. I’m curious to see what I am able to do.”

Kegley came across this scholarship opportunity through Dr. Asaro, a member of the Chesapeake Math and Information Technology Academy Math Department Charter School located in Laurel, Maryland and representative for a group called American Regions Mathematics League (ARML).

ARML is a national math club with about 100 teams from all over the United States that meet at Penn State to have annual competitions in the late spring. Before going to the competition at Penn State, potential competitors must take a test to get into the corresponding regional group. The group then goes to Penn State to take part in the national competition. The competitions are a series of tests in which the competitor both works with the group from their region to complete a math proof, and works individually to complete the series of tests.

“It’s flexible,” said Kegley about the scholarship, “I have to do this on my own time, but there is no specific day.”

The scholarship is a working stipend and is by the hour, but there is a 6-hour cap per week. Kegley explained, “ You have to send in a log book and they send a check. You have to, for work that is related to math.” Some of the work that Kegley will do in this work studies program include helping with fundraisers and proctoring math tests.

Senior Brian Green, a fellow peer mentioned, how “Any school would be lucky to have [Kegley]. He deserves it. He puts in a lot of good work.”

Ms. Jane Helmet, the Science and Technology Coordinator said Kegley was “the perfect choice” for the selection of the work studies scholarship as he has “a lot of potential” and is hard working.

“He was a huge help, especially during [the research practicum] symposium” Ms. Helmet said. “He was my right arm and one of the chairperson[s] for the symposium. He did everything I needed to be done. He’s a great organizer”

Kegley is also involved with the music program at the school as well as being president of the National Honor Society.

Kegley plans on going into pre-medicine and MED school and he will be applying for other scholarships. As of now, some of the schools he plans on applying to are University of Maryland, Morehouse University, University of Pennsylvania, and John Hopkins University.