GirlsFactor! is a math enrichment program for middle school girls to encourage them to pursue advanced math, including competition math

GirlsFactor! was created by Emma Leifer when she was a rising sophomore at Trinity School in New York City. She is now an incoming freshman at Harvard College. Emma was inspired to create GirlsFactor! after finding herself to be the only girl who qualified for her middle school math team in eighth grade. She thought the experience of being on the team and competing was so valuable that she wanted to help more girls delve deeper into math and succeed in competitions. Emma founded the Trinity chapter with her Co-President and classmate, Beth Ebrahimpour, who is also passionate about math and who takes advanced math classes with Emma at Trinity School.

GirlsFactor! is a program that meets once a week, before or after school. Every week, Emma and Beth, or the leaders of a GirlsFactor! Chapter, will teach a class of enthusiastic middle school girls about a cool and exciting math topic! Time is built in at the beginning or end of each class to go over any questions the girls have about their regular math classes in school.

Emma has designed the GirlsFactor! curriculum around topics necessary to succeed in math competitions — students learn topics such as combinatorics and the binomial theorem, probability, and geometry. In addition, Emma also has designed the curriculum to include a formal study of calculus at the end of the year for her older middle school students.

Emma believes that no matter where a girl is in her middle school math career it is never too early or too late to dive into advanced math. Girls can jump into GirlsFactor! at any point in their middle school careers — whether on the first week of school or the last. Emma’s motto is “zero experience necessary” — which she always makes sure to say at the beginning of lessons that may seem daunting at first :)