STORY: Alumna Founds Nonprofit Building Pipeline of Diverse Math Students

September 30, 2024

National Math Stars is a 10-year, fully funded program that supports and inspires exceptional elementary students’ love of mathematics.

Alumna Ilana Walder-Biesanz ’13 is continuing Olin’s vision of engineering for everyone by starting a nonprofit called National Math Stars, dedicated to ensuring mathematically extraordinary students from all communities have the resources they need to reach the frontiers of math and science.

Walder-Biesanz earned her Master of Philosophy in European Literature from the University of Cambridge, writing about theater and opera. She then did a Fulbright at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Bavaria, Germany, writing about how scripts are brought to life onstage. After working in product management at Yahoo, she earned her MBA at Stanford to learn more about nonprofit management. She then moved to Houston, where she consulted at Bain & Company with nonprofits in climate and education.

Walder-Biesanz learned from a friend about Carina Initiatives, a philanthropic foundation that invests in organizations working to unearth and inspire extraordinary young math students. In the summer of 2023, Walder-Biesanz became their Entrepreneur in Residence, with the goal of starting a new nonprofit to build a diverse pipeline of these students.

“We wanted to focus on early talent identification and offering long-term, holistic support that goes beyond the occasional summer camp or advanced course,” says Walder-Biesanz. “The result is National Math Stars, a highly selective program for exceptional math students that offers wraparound support from elementary school through the start of college.”

The program provides advanced math courses, mentoring from mathematicians, dedicated family advising, community gatherings, and a budget for summer experiences and STEM extracurriculars, such as chess lessons or FIRST Robotics.

National Math Stars looks for highly capable young students who aren’t likely to already have access to selective academic experiences, considering factors such as socioeconomic status, parental education level, geography, race, gender, learning differences, and more. “All those things could be obstacles, and we can help them overcome those barriers,” says Walder-Biesanz.

For their pilot program in 2023-24, National Math Stars selected 12 students and their families. “The pilot asked two major questions: 1) Can we work with schools to find a crop of kids who are mathematically extraordinary? And 2) can we support families in a way that is highly value additive and clearly makes a difference in their trajectory?” says Walder-Biesanz. “The answer to both is a clear yes.”

As National Math Stars expanded for their second cohort, Walder-Biesanz says they were blown away by the level of interest. “Our goal was 500 applications for 60 spots; we got 1,300 applications, mostly through referrals from Texas schools,” she says. “And the schools we worked with represent less than 10 percent of public schools across the state, which shows how much more impact this program can have.” Future cohorts will be larger (with 100 new spots planned for 2025) and draw from additional states. 

National Math Stars is supported through the end of 2027 by philanthropic commitments of $16.5 million, made by early funders who recognize the long-term value to society that this kind of intensive student support will have.

“We're essentially working to build a diverse pipeline of future STEM researchers, inventors, and founders, starting in elementary school,” says Walder-Biesanz. “This is really cool work that is very aligned with Olin’s goals.”