Aakash Bhattacharya and Arvind Kalra recently handed over a check for $1,200 to Kristina Foye, Director of Operations at Operation Hope, Fairfield, CT. Aakash, a high school junior and Arvind, a high school freshman, are both residents of Fairfield and  run a math club on Saturday afternoons for three hours. They coach students for nationally acclaimed math contests. The club activities are supervised by their parents Mousumi Bhattacharya and Sanjeev Kalra.

The mission of their club, Fairfield Math Club, is to provide service to the community by increasing awareness and preparedness of students in Fairfield County for nationally acclaimed math contests. At the same time, they want to help homeless people in need of shelter and food by raising funds for Operation Hope, Fairfield, CT.

During 2008 The Fairfield Math Club offered the following math contest preparation classes:
•    MathCounts for grades 608 in Winter Spring 2008 (10 classes)
•    AMC 8 for grades 6-8 in fall 2008 (10 classes)
•    MathLeague for grades 3-5 in fall 2008 (10 classes)
•    Intensive practice session for High school math contest preparation during Nov-Dec 2008
In addition they offered the following math skill building classes
•    Challenge Math by Ed Zaccaro for grades 3-8 in summer 2008 (10 classes)
•    Introduction to Number Theory for grades 608 in fall 2008 (17 classes)
•    Introduction to Counting & Probability for grades 608 in fall 2008 (15 classes)

The club also hosted the 24th Annual American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) 8 in November, 2008. Their team of top three students - Arjun Jain, grade 8 at Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Fairfield, CT, Mrinal Kumar, grade 7 at Colytown Middle School, Westport, CT, and Devisaisrika Boorgu, grade 7 at Westshore Middle School, Milford, CT - received the Certificate of Merit for a team score of 50 or better, which is in the top 5% of all 2,288 participating schools in the U.S. Their average score, 12.9, of the whole team of 15 students was higher than the national average of 10.83, with club members in each grade scoring higher than the corresponding grade-level national average.

Arjun Jain and Mrinal Kumar scored fourth highest in Connecticut among 2,241 participating students. They won the distinguished honor roll for scoring in the top 1% of all 148, 554 participants in the U.S. Gazal Gulati and Sagar Gulati, both grade 6 at Fairfield Warde Middle School, Fairfield, CT won the Certificate of Achievement for students in grade 6 or below scoring 12 or above, thereby falling in top 15% of all participants in the U.S.

Aakash scored highest in Connecticut in 2008 AMC 12B contest of the Mathematical Association of America and Arvind scored third highest in Connecticut in 2008 AMC 8 contest of the Mathematical Association of America. Aakash raised $500 in 2007 and $200 in 2006 for Operation Hope through fundraising activities among Fairfield Math Club members. In 2008 he was joined by Arvind Kalra in his efforts.  Sagar Kaushik, a sophomore at Weston High School, Weston, CT and Sonny Caplash, a sophomore at Masuk High School, Monroe, CT, joined as teachers. In addition, Anurag Kalra, grade 7 at Tomlinson Middle School, Fairfield, CT, and Arjun Jain, grade 8 at Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Fairfield, CT taught grades 3-5. With more teachers, Fairfield Math club was able to offer more classes in 2008 and the number of students more than doubled in 2008.

For more information on Fairfield Math Club please call (203) 384-1201.

|