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 Have you ever thought it was possible that at age twelve (or even earlier!), you'd be in a foreign country, along with math wizards from different parts of the world, duking it out with each other in a math competition? Well, with MTG, the answer to that question is a resounding YES! The MTG, or the Mathematics Trainers' Guild, is your ticket to representing the country in international math competitions. Along the way, you get to expand your knowledge in math by learning various interesting and advanced topics that sometimes don't even get discussed in school. You would also be gaining a lot of friends, as you would be sharing this opportunity with your fellow math wizards from other parts of the country. And, if you excel in this program, then you'd get to enjoy the bigger perks of being an MTG Kid, like visiting a distant city in the Philippines and spending one week there for a summer camp-like training program. Each year, thousands of students, from Grade 3 to 4th year high school, take on this unique challenge. In the end, the MTG selects around two hundred to wear the country's colors abroad. If you get to be one of the Philippine representatives to international math contests, the possibilities are endless. Past MTG delegations have visited China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States, to join competitions in those places. You would then get the chance to meet your fellow math wizards from different parts of the world. You would also get to visit different places and experience the unique culture that each country that you visit has to offer. Finally, and more importantly, you get the unique opportunity to show to the rest of the world just how talented and competitive Filipinos are in the field of mathematics. Apart from training students in math, the MTG also gives the opportunity for your math teachers to receive similar trainings. After all, one of the MTG's goals is to uplift the level of mathematics education in the country. The MTG conducts workshops and conferences that happen in different parts of the country. Sometimes, they even invite renowned international math educators as speakers to share their insights to our local teachers. For all of these, we have to thank four vissionaries - all math trainors from their respective schools - who embarked on an endeavor to showcase to the world the skills of the Filipino youth in math and to enrich the way that mathematics is taught in the country. Dr. Simon L. Chua, Mrs. Rechilda P. Villame, Mrs. Loly T. Ong, and Mr. Misael P. Fisico took the challenge and brought the MTG to life. All four are highly accomplished individuals, having earned numerous awards from their work on their field. Dr. Chua, who has ever since served as the Guild's president, is the country's first recipient of the Paul Erdos Award, given to those who made great contributions to the field of math competitions. Mrs. Villame, who has always been the MTG's Vice-President for External Affairs, is a former Metrobank Outstanding Teacher Awardee. Mrs. Ong and Mr. Fisico are currently abroad, honing their craft even further. The MTG has been in existence for ten years. And without a doubt, it has been making huge strides in accomplishing its goals. During that time span, the MTG was able to train tens of thousands of Filipino students under its flagship project - the MTG Mathematics Challenge for Filipino Kids Training Program. It organized numerous math-related projects and events, like the MTG Young Mathematicians' Intensive In-house Training Program and the MTG-DOST-SEI Mathematics Conference for Teachers. It has sent more than a thousand MTG Kids to more than fifty international competitions in eleven different countries and territories. It was even able to stage three international math competitions right here in our country - the Philippine Invitational World Youth Mathematics Intercity Competition in 2001, and the Philippine Elementary Mathematics Intercity Competition and the Asian Intercities Teenagers' Mathematical Olympiad in 2005. And most importantly, it raised the over-all interest of Filipinos in the field of mathematics. With all the MTG has accomplished in a single decade, we could only imagine what the succeeding years would bring. |
