The Calculus of Conviction

THE Breanna Shi ’20 CALCULUS OF CONVICTION

Amid adversity, math whiz Breanna Shi ’20 continues to defy odds and create new equations of achievement.

BY MICHAEL CANDELARIA

The numbers, even in the mind of Breanna Shi ’20, don’t quite add up. Looking at this particular equation, such a successful outcome was, in her words, “improbable.”

Yet, there Shi is, a mathematics whiz already with a master’s degree in hand, receiving it from the University of Minnesota in August and now attending the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) to pursue a doctorate in bioinformatics — with full tuition paid and a stipend. Plus, she will conduct machine-learning research in a customized lab as a GEM Diversity fellow.

Bioinformatics is a science field that uses computation to better understand biology. GEM represents a network of leading corporations, government laboratories, and top universities and research institutions that enables qualified students from underrepresented communities to receive graduate education in applied science and engineering.

For Shi, whose mother is Puerto Rican and Jewish, the fellowship could support her for the next five years.

Similarly, Shi’s master’s degree came by virtue of the University of Minnesota Diversity of Views and Experiences Fellowship Program, which recruits and supports academically excellent students with diverse ethnic, racial, economic and educational backgrounds.

Impressive.

RESILIENCE TO THE POWER OF ONE

And all is being achieved with this as a backdrop: Shi attended two Florida high schools, at least partly because of needed family moves, and she spent considerable time living in a Kissimmee trailer park with her four siblings while both parents, at one point, were working at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Indeed, Shi traveled no easy road growing up. By contrast, it was littered with potholes.

Spending ninth grade in Kissimmee, Shi didn’t believe she had a future in higher education. So, she attended Osceola Technical College to study in a program for licensed practical nursing. TECO, as the public school is called, awards certificates in programs designed to train individuals for entry-level employment. While there, she found a passion for caring for others, but not in nursing.

As a sophomore, she went to the area’s large public school, Gateway High, for its international baccalaureate track. However, there was a midyear move to Auburndale in a different county, necessitating more classroom change and bringing personal tragedy.

Failing to connect with one particular teacher after that move, she received a D in chemistry — imagine that for Shi? It turned out to be her only such grade ever (followed by an A in that same class). Much worse, that 10th grade was the year her father died of a heart attack.

The family had moved to Auburndale because Craig Shi started a job as a Polk County correctional officer. Shi and her dad had been on a run, with her running first and him setting out upon her return. Later, he suffered the heart attack while talking with her in her room.

“My dad and I were very close … ,” Shi says softly, sadly, noting that he had been pursuing a degree in criminal justice from Florida State University when he died.

Shi again had to recalculate.

“My father was always the rock, the tough one,” she says. “I felt like I had to take on that role for my family; I had to be the strong one. And so I told myself I had to keep going. And I had to just ball up all the stuff I was feeling and pursue my academic career.”

In the semester following his death, Shi began dual enrollment at Polk State College. “He is the reason I decided to go to college at 15,” she affirms. “I thought, ‘This is what my father would want me to do.’

“That is a huge drive for me, every day thinking about ‘what would my dad want me to do?’ I do put a lot of pressure on myself to meet that expectation. But, at the end of the day, my dad was always a person that bragged about his kids all the time to anybody that

At Stetson, Shi also became a leader of other students, shining at national conferences.

TOP: Shi is now attending Georgia Tech to pursue a doctorate in bioinformatics and conduct machine-learning research — analyzing the genetic codes of fish.

BOTTOM: Shi with her mother, Julie Shi, a 2011 alumna of Stetson’s MBA program would listen. And I knew in my heart that he would be very proud of me, that he would not shut up about me.”

Further, only one day after his death, she still took her final exam in Algebra II, declining to delay the test. Actually, it was a class she “pretty much taught” that year since “I was super into the material because it was math, and I was learning that I really loved math.”

Meanwhile, her mother, Julie Shi, remained a steadfast supporter with her own special influence. She had returned to school later in life to become a teacher and is a 2011 alumna of Stetson’s MBA program (graduating cum laude and on the Dean’s List). That helped pave her daughter’s way to DeLand.

And, as for her prowess in math, Shi doesn’t hesitate about citing the reason: “That would be my mother.”

ABUNDANT GIFTS ON STETSON DISPLAY

At Stetson, young Shi stood out for a number of reasons, not the least of which was her age. Through the dual enrollment, she simultaneously graduated with her diploma from Auburndale High and her associate degree from Polk State in 2018 — at age 17 — before arriving at Stetson that fall.

Shi was drawn to the math department, particularly faculty members such as Tom Vogel, PhD, associate professor of math and computer science and chair of that program. Vogel promised her that she could graduate in two years. Promise kept.

At the time of her arrival on campus, Fazal Abbas, PhD, then a new assistant professor of mathematics, couldn’t have known Shi had been a phenomenon at Polk State, becoming, among other distinctions, the first female math tutor at the tutoring center. Shi was only 16, “which was unheard of at the time because they didn’t hire people who were under 18, and I got the job,” she described.

Abbas, who had just arrived from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, initially taught Shi in an algebra class and then began working with her on an astrophysics project. Prior to Stetson, Abbas had worked closely with other talented students, and he witnessed something special in Shi: maturity, professionalism and passion to go along with her math prowess.

“She’s very respectful, and she’s a very good listener, and also very disciplined. There are multiple qualities,” Abbas comments. “And she is confident — she can talk.”

Those qualities were on full display, Abbas notes, at the January 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, a huge annual academic gathering. In past years, Abbas regularly had invited top students to join him at the event, as a way for “gifted students to get exposure” and possibly earn graduate-school scholarships.

There, students made poster presentations and competed for attention. Shi shined. For her presentation, she received “Excellent,” the highest rating. Also, she met with admissions representatives from a variety of graduate schools nationwide.

“That’s how I got interested in going to grad school; it was at that conference,” she remembers before adding, “It was the first time I saw snow, so that was interesting.”

Later that year, Shi again was a star, this time at another national conference, ultimately receiving a 2019 Stetson Undergraduate Research Education grant. Then she returned with Abbas and other Stetson students for the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings, where new traits emerged, according to Abbas. Shi stood out as a helpful, compassionate leader — characteristics of her father, who “could never just pass someone by on the side of the road that needed help,” she says.

Abbas also saw great confidence in his prized student. “She has the ability to showcase in front of others. While some gifted students might be shy or reluctant, she excelled when given the chance. She saw her value,” says Abbas, who still today continues to work with her on research projects.

And, to no surprise, Shi had become a regular at Stetson’s popular Uncouth Hour, a weekly open-mic event where the university’s community of artists share their works of art and literature. Robustly, Shi sang.

“That was like the night when I didn’t have to be a math person. I’m a performer. That’s always been me,” she explains, adding she was a member in church choirs growing up and has performed as a baton twirler.

FINDING A NEW VOICE

Notably, Abbas wasn’t Shi’s first mentor/ adviser. At Polk State, one summer algebra class was all math professor Li Zhou, PhD, needed to be convinced of her potential. “He was like, ‘You need to do mathematics,” Shi recalls. And earlier at Gateway High, a geometry teacher took special interest and made an impression, says Shi, who remembers being “good in math” since middle school.

“I’m glad,” Shi says, “that people did push me.”

As a result, Shi’s options in education have multiplied. This summer, she worked remotely on generating better biofuels for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Department of Energy in Colorado. She ran an image-analysis machine learning algorithm on protein images for biologists.

Before choosing Georgia Tech, she strongly considered a scholarship offer from Lehigh University in its doctorate program for computer sciences.

At Georgia Tech, Shi’s research will center on analyzing the genetic codes of certain fish, as those codes correlate to aggressive behavior. In straightforward terms, she explains: “Because fish are simpler than the human brain, we can actually analyze the fish and learn things about human aggression.”

Shi anticipates being at Georgia Tech for four years. Aside from academics, her priority will be lab work and gaining experience as a teacher. Last spring at Minnesota, she taught a class in differential equations. “My focus is really preparing myself to be a professor, and that’s really what I want to do when I graduate,” she says.

Further, she has found a new voice — one she hopes to pass on to others like her, especially young girls.

Lesson one: Believe in yourself, which just might be the key variable to her entire equation.

“The first thing I would tell them is, ‘Do not listen to anybody that is not doing what you want to do,’” Shi concludes. “If someone is telling you that you can do something, and they’re not doing it, they have no expertise to be telling you that. And, another thing is, there are so many people that would like to support you, and want to see you succeed. So, don’t worry about the people who don’t want to see you succeed, because you don’t have time for those people.”

Lesson two: Remain focused. “I do sometimes get overwhelmed,” she says, pointing to the idea that focus is a superpower.

“You do have a lot of things that you can do, and you have a lot of opportunities that sound exciting. So, you really have to pick what is the most important to you.”

Shi picked math — and has raised it to extraordinary levels.

Shi was a regular on stage at Stetson’s popular Uncouth Hour, a weekly open-mic event.