West Hills Teen Wins Gold in Mathematical Olympiad

Alicia Weng, 16, from West Hills, a junior in the Highly Gifted Magnet at North Hollywood High School, is among three American students to win gold medals at the 11th annual China Girls Mathematical Olympiad.

Gold medals were also awarded to Victoria Xia, 16, from Vienna, VA—she received a perfect score and won her second consecutive gold medal; and Danielle Wang, 15, from Campbell, CA, who also won a gold medal last year. Silver medals were won by Cynthia Day, 17, from San Jose, CA; Courtney Guo, 16, a U.S. citizen studying in Beijing; Laura Pierson, 12, from Oakland, CA, who is the youngest student to ever compete on the U.S. team, and Jingyi Zhao, 16, from Culver, IN. A bronze medal was awarded to Gabriella Studt, 16, from Silver Spring, MD.

This year the Mathematical Olympiad drew 204 girls from 10 countries: Japan, Russia, Korea, the United States, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Singapore, and China. Founded in 2002, the competition began as a regional meet for teams of female students from China and other eastern Asian countries. It was later expanded to invite teams from more countries and the first team from the United States joined in 2007.

The girls on the U.S. team wrote an online travelogue that shared their impressions during their trip. See http://www.msri.org/cgmo/2012.

--  The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, CA, contributed to this report.

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