Sometimes, more than you might think. This summer I did some problem solving with the Orlando Math Circle that involved mathematics and a whole lot more.
The Orlando Math Circle (OMC) is a volunteer organization introducing the fun of mathematics to students throughout Orlando. We had been buying grid math notebooks at retail prices ($2.50-$3.99) and distributing them at community centers, but it was getting very expensive. Providing notebooks for just one group of 20 students was $50-$80, more than we have a budget for. Seeing an opportunity to put my social entrepreneurship to the test, I offered to do what I could to solve the problem.
My first solution was a simple one: find a cost effective grid math notebook that we could order in bulk to distribute and sell to students. I found a source we could order grid notebooks in bulk with custom logo for $1 per notebook, a savings of more than 50%. It also opened up another way to make ourselves sustainable: if we could could sell enough of our own OMC grid notebooks, we could not only fund those we were giving away but also provide much needed funding for other outreach opportunities and events.
I found that we could print these grid notebooks two different ways, business printing of branded materials with our logo or a self-published grid notebook using readily available on demand printers.
On demand printing was more expensive, but also had more potential. If we did something special inside this grid notebook we could sell it as a book. That was likely to lead to more profit then just selling the grid notebook with logo.
I discussed my idea with the OMC director, and suggested we produce a journal that has room to draw and doodle but also provided cool questions, inspirational quotes, and resources. We could even open up a few pages to organizations who would buy sponsorships for the year.
I was happy when I found out that my project was chosen by the OMC director as one of our possible summer internship projects, but still was not sure how this idea would come to life. I was the only person during the summer who was working remotely. I thought that the remote work model for students in itself was a cool summer project to develop so that OMC would have a bigger pool of students to recruit during summers. More companies are doing work remotely then ever before, and I really wanted to prove that this could also work for OMC.
The project was selected by the OMC students for a two week internship. We formed a project Slack channel, I created some google documents with information to share about the printing and the other students started working on a document with a list of potential local sponsors. I started thinking about who could be reached in NYC to contribute content or sponsor the journal.
By the end of the two weeks we had published two website pages, one explaining submissions by students and another for sponsors to see examples of pages they could invest in.
We had also come together as a highly diverse interdisciplinary team—high school students, college students, those interested in business, graphic design, and art—to make something we all cared about. This is social entrepreneurship at its best. The content that will be created will serve as an inspiration to do mathematics, and we’ll have the opportunity to point to resources that people have no idea exist.
And just think, it all came out of a simple problem: trying to do the math to figure out a cost effective and profitable way to buy a basic grid notebook.
Author: Max Rubinchik
Max is a senior at The Ramaz School in NYC. Max always had an interest in math and science. He pursues his interests by participating on the math and science olympiad teams in school. Max Rubinchik wants to see mathematics as a force that brings students together through creative projects that help communities. Max got involved with Orlando Math Circle when his younger brother was taking online classes at OMC. Max was interested in helping develop the reach of the student driven math circle model by developing a remote project that would help with OMC mission. Max’s interest in social entrepreneurship helped him create the OMC Mathematics Grid Journal Project. This project will lead the way for OMC to create products that ignite mathematical interest and raise money to help level the playing field through enrichment mathematics for underserved populations. Max hopes to see the journal publication and distribution not only inspire students in mathematics but raise money for community math libraries, scholarships for classes, summer internships and community math festivals. Max enjoys collaborating with other passionate students and is always open to hearing different ways to approach problems. Max enjoys playing tennis and spending time with family and friends during his free time.
