Jessica Weitbrecht completed her Master’s at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics where she was a PSI Scholar. She is now the Research and Innovation lead at the Rwanda Mathematics Olympiad Program at AIMS Rwanda.
Perimeter Institute alumni have gone on to a wide variety of roles after leaving the Institute. It was during her time at Perimeter Institute that Jessica Weitbrecht realized how much she enjoyed teaching. This realization took her across the Atlantic to Rwanda where she is not just teaching math and organizing math competitions but also fostering the next generation of mathematicians and math teachers. We reached out to Jessica to learn more about her journey.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What is your current role, and how are you trying to push boundaries in your field?
My current role is as the research and innovation lead at the Rwanda Mathematics Olympiad Program at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Rwanda.
I am the co-founder of Rwanda's Olympiad program. When I first came to Rwanda in 2018, after completing Perimeter Scholars International (PSI), there was no culture of math competitions in the country, and most bright students did not want to study math in university. Starting from nothing, we ran the first teacher training and competition for high school students in 2019, and by 2023 we had 25,000 students taking part in our first round. Now we reach more than half of all secondary schools in the country, reach students in their first year of secondary school, and have a multiyear training program with Rwanda's team performing consistently at the top of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The greatest thing we have done is to find and train coaches who are willing to run the program, improving their own math and teaching skills so that the students will improve over time. We have given these university students the opportunity to make decisions and own the program.The program is now run by these people, and I am no longer the boss; I am just looking at how to improve the program.
In 2023, we ran the biggest math competition in Africa, where I was the local organising chair of the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad, and we grew the competition from the usual nine to 12 countries attending to 26 in person and seven online countries taking part – many for the first time, kickstarting Olympiads in many countries.
Now I am helping to set up a school to help boost other countries’ performance. Through math competitions and math camps, we find the top four to six students (gender equal) from a few different countries, and take them for a three year high school degree in Rwanda. At the same time, we are helping the organizers of math competitions to increase the reach and effectiveness of their programs.
What brought you to where you are now?
When I was younger, I always wanted to help people, and actually wanted to be a nurse for a while. I am glad I didn't follow that path. I think doing what I love and being able to use that to help people is much more fun.
Before PSI, I was unsure of what I wanted to do, and during PSI, I had a chance to work with Reception House in Waterloo, teaching English and Math to a recent immigrant. I realized that I actually enjoyed teaching; actually why I love physics is because it is something that I first taught myself. And I have always explained things to myself, trying to make the ideas as clear as possible to myself.
I think I am incredibly lucky to be able to do what I love. I have gotten so many opportunities in my life – from doing olympiads as a kid, to scholarships as an undergraduate, and of course taking part in PSI. Of course I worked hard, but working with the students in Rwanda, I can see that they are just as strong as I was at their age. They are able to solve things that most Master’s students can't solve, and they can even teach each other theories and ideas that I haven't learnt.
I think part of what I like about working in Rwanda is that there are so many opportunities to change things, to start things. In other countries, there are math teacher unions, and math trusts, and many different math communities. In Rwanda, we are all of those things – we run teacher training, and have Whatsapp groups with thousands of teachers who help each other out, sharing resources and questions. We select and train the national team, and run university competitions. We train coaches and provide a space for math lovers to come together. And that's just in math – we are also starting physics and informatics, building on our success. (Again in many other countries, these things already exist.)
I like problems, I like solving them, and I guess I've just found lots of different interesting problems to solve.
What are you passionate about?
Outside my career, I am a mum. I have a three-year-old son, and he brings great joy to my life. He asks a million questions a day, and demands attention. He has forced me to have a work-life balance, and spend a lot of time reading the same book again and again.
I love seeing him grow and develop, and I have read too many parenting and psychology books – parenting is always hard, but it is fun to see how some of the tips and tricks actually work. It is also fun to test them out on adults; fun fact, adults are just grown up toddlers.
My other main hobby is reading. I have loved reading since I was a child, and I think it helps me to have empathy for many people, and understand how people are all so different, and how living or growing up in different places affects you. I read all sorts of books; my favourite thing to do is buy second hand books. The selection is smaller, but I end up reading books that I otherwise would not have.
How has your work impacted your industry and community?
In Rwanda:
- 35,000+ students a year take part in our math competitions.
- Schools have set up math clubs and actively prepare their students for the competitions, and ask us when the next one will be.
- The training program reaches 600 students online, and 100 students in person each year, with equal numbers of boys and girls.
- Rwanda performs at the top of Sub-Saharan Africa in math competitions, despite being one of the smallest countries, with very little history of math excellence.
- University students who love math have a community of coaches to be part of. They have a space where they are encouraged to improve their math and self-development. They are also interested in teaching and in the next generation.
- Based on performances in international competitions, four to six students a year receive full scholarships to American and Arab universities.
In East Africa & Africa:
- The Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad has grown from nine to 12 countries to 30+ countries.
- Online training for students across Africa has participants from ten countries, and trainers from across the globe.
- The African Olympiad Academy will take the top students from several countries and give them a space to flourish, with high expectations that they will help to achieve several medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad.
How do you give back to your community?
My job and career are basically about mentorship, inclusive leadership, and giving back to the community. Let me give you some bullet points.
Mentorship:
- The program is now run by three recent university graduates of Rwanda, who have all been mentored by me.
- I mentor recent high school graduates to apply to universities.
Inclusive leadership:
- From the start of the program, we wanted to be able to hand it off to Rwandans, and so we included coaches in the decision-making, many times before they were really ready. But one of the best ways to make leaders is to give people things to be leaders of.
- The culture of being inclusive, and making sure that everyone involved has a voice is strongly built into the program now, and everyone feels like their ideas are important.
- This is especially impressive in Rwanda, as generally in education and work there are strict hierarchies.
- We have had gender quotas from the start, and put a lot of effort into making sure people of all genders feel included, and again, because it has been a value of the program from the start, everyone involved maintains that.
Giving back to your community:
We have made a community of math problem solvers in Rwanda, and I actively give back to it, through work, and also through hosting pizza parties – all good communities have food at the center, and an informal space to connect helps to make our community strong.
Our 30+ coaches are friends with each other. They help each other out. They encourage each other to improve their math, and they help each other improve their math.