Colin Sheehe, a senior at Allegany High School, recently participated in two mathematics competitions and earned qualifying scores which moved him to invitation-only second rounds on both. One was a state test sponsored by the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was honored at a recognition ceremony on Saturday, March 9, and the other was a national test sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America.

In October, Michael Nestor, mathematics teacher at Allegany, administered Part I of the University of Maryland Math Competition, open to all students enrolled in high schools in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Overall, 1403 students from 87 schools took Part I, and of those, 245 qualified for Part II by receiving at least a 92 out of 150. Based on the combined score from both parts, Sheehe was the highest scorer in Allegany County.

In November, Nestor administered the American Mathematics Competition, open to all high school students in the United States. Sheehe received a high enough qualifying score to invite him to take the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) in February. The AIME is 3 hours long and invite-only. Of the 5,568 students nationwide who qualified for and completed the contest, the median score was 5 out of 15; Sheehe received a score of 9, placing him in the top 25% of second-round test takers.

Mr. Nestor stated, “Along with doing so well on these exams, throughout high school Colin has earned perfect scores on the SAT, the math section of the PSAT, and a College Board mathematics subject test. He has also earned 5 out of 5 on 10 AP exams so far. For math, as part of his full-day senior schedule, he is taking Calculus III and Differential Equations through dual-enrollment partnerships with Allegany County Public Schools, Allegany College of Maryland, and Community College of Baltimore County. Currently, he is employed by Fiveable, Inc. as a student content creator for AP study and review for AP Physics. He is involved in numerous teams, activities, and clubs at Allegany and is a well-rounded student.”

Pictured (l to r): Professor Doron Levy, UMD Department of Mathematics, Chair; Colin Sheehe, Allegany High School senior; and Dr. Roohollah Ebrahimian, UMD High School Mathematics Competition, Chair