For students in New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Math Success Initiative, a recent documentary screening offered a different way to think about mathematics — not simply as a subject to master, but as something that shapes opportunities, decisions and everyday life.
The students gathered in Weston Lecture Hall for a screening of “Counted Out,” a documentary by filmmaker Vicki Abeles that examines mathematical literacy through issues ranging from education and employment to technology, politics and economic opportunity. The film challenges the idea that some people simply are not “math people” and argues that access to mathematics can influence who has the ability to understand and shape the systems around them.
The screening was coordinated by Peter Ward, senior university lecturer and MSI Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts (JHCSLA) coordinator, and Michelle Cirillo, professor and JHCSLA faculty liaison for the Math Success Initiative, both in NJIT’s Department of Mathematical Sciences. Students were joined by MSI instructors, teaching assistants and program leadership, including Jacqueline Cusack, executive director of Pre-College Programs, and Eliza Michalopoulou, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences.
Cirillo first saw “Counted Out” at a conference at Penn State last fall and immediately thought about the MSI students.
“Math is not simply a hurdle you either clear or don’t, but a form of power — over your earning potential, your career options and your ability to understand the systems that govern your life,” Cirillo said. “The film shows students what it costs them when they decide that they are not ‘a math person,’ or what can be gained when they assume that they are.”
Math is life.
That message closely aligns with the purpose of MSI, a partnership between NJIT, the City of Newark and Newark Public Schools designed to strengthen students’ mathematics knowledge and skills and prepare them for college-level coursework at NJIT.
During the discussion that followed the film, students repeatedly returned to the idea of the “math person” myth. They also discussed ways mathematical reasoning can influence civic life and decision-making, including examples presented in the documentary involving gerrymandering and the use of algorithms.
Another takeaway was more personal: struggling with mathematics does not mean someone is incapable of succeeding at it.
One student summarized the film in three words: “Math is life.” Another wrote in a reflection the following morning, “It did give me hope that I can always improve in math.”
Students also described seeing mathematics differently after the screening. One wrote that the film “changed my way of only seeing math in equations. Now I see that math is everywhere we are.”
The documentary draws in part on the work of civil rights leader and Algebra Project founder Bob Moses, whose advocacy connected expanded access to mathematical literacy with greater opportunity. The film includes some of Moses’ final interviews and is dedicated to him.
For Cirillo and Ward, the timing of the screening was deliberate. The MSI students are completing their summer program before beginning a credit-bearing NJIT mathematics course this fall while still high school seniors.
“We hoped they would leave understanding that persisting in mathematics is about keeping doors open,” Cirillo said. “Every additional math course a student takes widens the set of majors, careers and decisions available to them.”
Before leaving the screening, each student wrote a note to their future self about something from the film they wanted to remember. Their MSI instructors will return the notes during the fall semester, when the students are balancing their NJIT mathematics course with high school classes and other commitments.
“If one student walked away believing they should never give up on math, this screening was worth it,” Cirillo said. “Judging by the reflections, several did.”
