Hortensia Soto facts for kids
Hortensia Soto is a Mexican–American mathematics teacher and professor. She teaches math at Colorado State University. She also helps lead a big math group called the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). She became the president of the MAA in 2022.
Early Life and Learning
Hortensia Soto was born in a special kind of house in Jalisco, Mexico. When she was one year old, her family moved to a farm in Nebraska, USA. She grew up there.
Even when she was young, people noticed she was very good at math. Her teachers encouraged her in elementary school. In high school, she was so good that she sometimes helped teach math classes.
Soto first studied political science at Eastern Wyoming College. Later, she earned two degrees in mathematics from Chadron State College. She got her bachelor's degree in 1988 and her master's in 1989. She then earned another master's degree in math from the University of Arizona in 1994. In 1996, she finished her Ph.D. in educational mathematics at the University of Northern Colorado.
Her Career in Mathematics
Soto started her career at the University of Southern Colorado in 1989. She directed the Mathematics Learning Center there. In 1995, she became a math professor at the university. She became a full professor in 2001. This university later changed its name to Colorado State University–Pueblo.
In 2005, she moved to the University of Northern Colorado. She became a full professor there in 2014. After that, she joined Colorado State University as a math professor.
At the University of Northern Colorado, Soto started a summer program for high school girls. It was called Las Chicas de Matemáticas: UNC Math Camp for Young Women. This program ran from 2008 to 2014. She also helped with a teacher training program in Nebraska called Math in the Middle.
Hortensia Soto has been very involved with the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). She was the governor for the Rocky Mountain Section of the MAA. In May 2018, she became the Associate Secretary of the MAA. In October 2021, she was chosen to be the next president of the MAA. She started her two-year term as president on February 1, 2022.
Awards and Honors
Hortensia Soto has received many awards for her work in mathematics.
- In 2001, Chadron State College gave her their Distinguished Young Alumni Award.
- In 2012, the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) gave her a Meritorious Service Award. This award is for excellent service to the organization.
- She won the Burton W. Jones Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016. This award is from the Rocky Mountain Section of the MAA.
- In 2018, she received the Deborah and Franklin Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. This award recognizes great math teachers at colleges and universities.
Hortensia Soto is also featured in a special deck of playing cards. These cards highlight important women mathematicians.
See also
In Spanish: Hortensia Soto para niños
