It’s summertime and technically school’s out for high school students Jonathan Mei and Kevin Fan, but for several hours a week they are still poring over complicated math problems in a Buchholz High School classroom. Under the guidance of teacher and math team coach Jason Wiggins, Mei, Fan and several other students are preparing for upcoming national competitions. They say Wiggins keeps them motivated.

“Mr. Wiggins tells us jokes and keeps us going,” said Fan. “He is definitely one of the reasons that we don’t mind coming out and working hard for the math team.”

Wiggins is one of three math team coaches at Buchholz. He and fellow coaches Will Frazier and Ziwei Lu, who are also math teachers at the school, work to keep the team focused and determined during the school year and beyond.

“We’re here after school, and we’re here during the summer,” said Wiggins. “It fosters a sense of community and friendship, and you get to know the students as people, not just competitors.”

“We’re more than teacher and students, we’re very close,” said Fan, a rising senior at Buchholz. “He’s like another father figure in my life.”

That relationship prompted four of Wiggins’ students to nominate him for the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished High School Mathematics Teaching, which is sponsored annually the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Wiggins is one of just 23 teachers across the nation to win the award, which recognizes teachers who, according to the association’s website, are “responsible for the success of the highest scoring school teams on the American High School Math Examination,” a rigorous test designed to identify the most talented mathematics students in the nation.

“He really motivated us to work towards our goals,” said Mei, another rising senior and one of the students who nominated Wiggins for the award. The other students were Mariya Toneva, Louie Wu, and Sungho Lee.

Buchholz has a long tradition of excellent and highly successful math teams, teams that have won regional, state and national championships. In an effort to uphold that tradition, Wiggins, Frazier and Lu have been meeting with their team three times a week this summer for four hours each day. With the National American Mathematics Competition coming up in Sacramento, California in mid July, the hours of preparation will increase.

Wiggins says he enjoys working with his students. Most of all, he says enjoys the thrill of seeing them compete successfully. He’s also proud that his students thought he was deserving of the Sliffe Award.

“I was pretty floored. I didn’t even know that they nominated me,” said Wiggins. “It’s definitely the highlight of my teaching career.”