CITRUS – About Us – Cowconuts Associate

Cowconuts Institute for Tutoring Under-resourced Students

CITRUS is a program within the Cowconuts Math Club aimed at minority students and students from underprivileged backgrounds. It was initiated and spearheaded by Eric Zhang and co-launched by his partners Mason Fang and Alex Yang.

Following the Black Lives Matter protests, Cowconuts members felt compelled to do their part in helping to elevate under resourced communities. We turned our sights inwards, examining our own role in contributing to a system of privilege. It quickly became clear to us that our student body sorely lacked diversity, a result of the elitist nature of competitions. Our first goal had to be creating a more inclusive recruiting process, one that went beyond advertising to affluent families.

Enter CITRUS.

This program offers free competition math classes to minority and under resourced students. We make coordinated efforts to reach out to a diverse collection of communities and encourage students with all kinds of backgrounds to pursue math.

How CITRUS works

There are several significant barriers limiting kids’ ability to participate: Expensive or inexperienced coaches, lack of opportunities, an unsupportive community, and a lack of confidence.

CITRUS was designed with these problems in mind. We boast a team of tutors who are experienced teachers and highly succesful in the competition math world themselves. That makes them the people best positioned to guide new students, introduce them to competition opportunities, and support them as they learn. Our low student-teacher ratio (3-5 : 1) allows our tutors to give personalized attention and play an influential role in students’ developement. Our focus on an interactive and light-hearted teaching style makes competition math feel approachable for all students.

CITRUS is one of the best equipped programs out there to help minority and under resourced students enter the world of competition math.