Miriam Leiva facts for kids
Miriam Almaguer Leiva is a super smart Cuban-American woman who loves math! She is a mathematician (someone who studies math) and a math teacher who helps others learn math. She was the very first Hispanic woman in America to earn a special advanced degree called a doctorate in math and how to teach it.
Miriam Leiva used to be a special professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She also started an organization called TODOS: Mathematics for All. This group helps and encourages Latinx students to do well in math. Plus, she has written many math textbooks for middle and high school students.
Early Life and Education
Miriam Leiva was born in Cuba. When she was a teenager in the 1950s, she moved to the United States.
She went to Guilford College for her first college degree and graduated in 1961. After that, she wanted to study math even more at the University of North Carolina. At first, they didn't want to let her in because she was a woman. But Miriam didn't give up! She kept trying and was finally accepted.
In 1966, she earned her master's degree there. Her teacher, Alfred Brauer, helped her a lot. She wrote a special paper for her degree about numbers.
After getting her master's degree, Miriam Leiva became a math teacher in high schools. Later, she started teaching at the University of North Carolina. While she was teaching there, she also earned her doctorate degree. She did this through a special distance education program from Union Institute & University. This means she could study and learn from far away!
Awards and Recognition
Miriam Leiva has received many important awards for her work in math education:
- In 2008, the TODOS organization gave her the Iris Carl Equity and Leadership Award. This award recognized her leadership and how she helped make things fair for all students in math.
- In 2013, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) gave her the Kay Gilliland Equity Lecture Award. This was a new award, and she was the first person to get it! It was for her amazing work in making math education fair for everyone.
- In 2014, the NCTM gave her another big award: the Mathematics Education Trust Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is for people who have done a lot of great things for math education throughout their lives.
