Middle School Mathematics Teacher Lekisha Jackson is shown above assisting Nathalie and Alex moments before the team competition. This weekend we hosted the CEESA (Central and Eastern European Schools Association) Math Counts competition. Math Counts is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting math excellence among middle school math students. Seven schools with 54 “mathletes” competed in written and oral tests, with both individual and team categories. The students were billeted with ISB families and besides the mathematics, they enjoyed getting to know the cultural side of Belgrade and socialized with our students at a big dance on Saturday.
The event was dominated by Korean students. The top 10 students in the individual competition were all Korean students. ISB grade 8 student Rick was the top non-Korean in the competition, finishing one question short of the top 10 in 11th place. Winning the competition was Tae Suk Joung from AIS Budapest, with Victor Moon and Duk Sung Ahn from AAS Moscow finishing second and third respectively.
In the team competition, the Anglo American School of Moscow took the top two spots with AIS Budapest finishing in third place. The gold medal AAS Moscow team consisted of Duck Sung Ahn, Victor Moon, Ji Tae Park, and Gi Cheol Shin. Also participating in the competition were AIS Zagreb (Croatia), the American School of Paris (France), the Anglo-American School of Sofia (Bulgaria), and the Tirana International School of Albania.
I would like to thank Tim Moynihan, Will Clowney, Igor Saljic, Aleksander Nikolic and Marija Vuckovic for their outstanding efforts in organizing the event. A lot of work goes into behind the scenes when hosting a successful event of this magnitude. A special mention goes to our Math Counts Coach and math teacher Ms. Lekisha Jackson. She spent countless hours preparing the students and the community for the event. Her dedication and organization paid off as our students learned much from the event and performed extremely well. Ms. Jackson has been a special addition to our staff this year and we all appreciate her teaching! Thank you Lekisha!!!
The dance on Saturday evening was also special. I would like to thank Mr. Sean Hayes and the STUCO students for the fine organization of the dance. Our students made our guests feel at home and they enjoyed themselves in a responsible manner. Thanks to Mr. Vrbaski, Ms. Tharalsen, Mrs. Medenica, Mrs. Jovanovic, and Mr. Hayes for chaperoning the dance. The out of the classroom relationships our teachers form with the students is one of the best characteristics of ISB. I would also like to thank our ISB families that hosted students. I only heard positive comments from the parents on the comportment of the students.
In summary, Math Counts accomplished its mission of encouraging math excellence. We look forward to next year’s competition.
Bill's Blog 
It was interesting that 46% of the competitors were Korean and 69% of them were male.
excuse me, I think you made a mistake, the top 10 mathcounts student were not all korean, the 9th place was a Japanese named Makoto Nishitani
so can you change the math counts stuff? also mail me if you did
You are correct. There was a Japanese student in the Top Ten.