JUSTIN PUNO

Justin Puno does it all, or as much as he can. In school he is a terrific student. He’s an athlete. He volunteers. On his own time is where Puno hits another gear. Not just with academics, but as a person who sees a world bigger than his school and his town. “As an adult, I think it would be incredibly challenging to ‘do’ all that Justin does,” says Linda Mihm, who sees Justin every day in her role as the Middle School Coordinator. “But he makes it look almost effortless. He clearly cares a great deal about his studies and devotes a great deal of time to his work.” Puno, who is one of the top math students in the state of Indiana, participates in the Sycamore MATHCOUNTS program, the competitive program led by Sycamore math teacher Trent Tormoehlen. Puno is also on the Sycamore Debate team, the Science Bowl team, competes in basketball, track and field, and is the goalie on the soccer team. Math, however, is his academic passion. “The thing that sets Justin apart from other students is his drive,” says Tormoehlen. “Understanding his drive is key to understanding Justin. Justin is very task oriented, and goal oriented, and Justin truly loves solving math problems.” “My first experience of discovering my love for math was 1st Grade with Mrs. Hendry,” Puno says. “We were doing tile cards, which were sheets of laminated paper with spaces and we had to put the number in the right place in the equations with two and three digit multiplications. I saw that I kept getting progressively better.”

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He found his math skills continuing to grow, and as Puno got older, more opportunities became available. He began to be a regular in Tormoehlen’s before and after-school classes. He started practicing with the MATHCOUNTS team in 5th Grade, and as a 6th Grader, he jumped into the competitions, facing mostly older opponents. “His passion for math is evident through the time he spends after school most days with Mr. T.,” Mihm says. “I just like the competitive aspect and the way the questions are structured,” he says of the MATHCOUNTS competitions. “It also makes me think more about problem solving, not just direct equations.” “Over the years, I have often said my favorite thing to do as a teacher is solve interesting math problems with students,” Tormoehlen says. “I don’t think there has been a student that I have worked on more math problems with than Justin. One of the areas Justin has shown major growth in over the years is his willingness to struggle through a difficult problem with a very long solution, which is evidence of his love of solving problems as it takes that sort of commitment to persevere through the problems at the level he is now working.” While in those after-school math sessions, Justin began to notice something about some of the older students. They were getting up and leaving. And not because they didn’t like math. They loved math. “When I was in Mr. T’s room after school, a lot of older Sycamore students who were in there would leave the room to go to Debate or Science Bowl,” he says. “I thought, ‘Hmm. Maybe I could try that, and not just math.’ So I asked Mrs. Simpson (who coaches the debate team) if it would possible to join. So I did. I think when I originally started, I didn’t understand the format.” “It is very impressive the way Justin is able to switch gears between all of his different activities, including school work,” Tormoehlen says. “He does a great job of making sure he completes all of his required work while also making time to work on extra things and attend all of the different practices and competitions. He has a great combination of speed and the ability to focus for long periods of time that makes him incredibly productive for a middle school student.” Puno was shocked at the amount of preparation students put into competing in debate. “You spend a lot of time— weeks—researching. I thought it was going to be freestyle. But it was a lot more formal. The formality stunned me. But the speaking? I was fine with that.” It is that communication that draws Puno to team sports. “I’m most comfortable with basketball and have been playing it the longest. I like the direct teamwork of athletics. You get that a little bit with academic teams. Debate is pretty teamwork based, and so is Science Bowl. With sports, I like the communication in live time and talking as it is going on. Sports is different in that way—we are not being quiet during competition.”

JUSTIN has been at Sycamore for eight years, after starting in 1st Grade. As he has progressed through Lower School and into Middle School, his desire to see a wider view of our world, and to try to facilitate change, has grown. “One of my good friends, Connor KacenaMerrell, asked me if I wanted to get involved in an organization called Building Tomorrow. So we started last year,” he says. Puno says they primarily focused on fundraising to build a school in Uganda, working towards a goal of raising $50,000. Building Tomorrow is an organization that works with partners to build schools in impoverished areas and then equips them with teachers and make them sustainable. The goal is to help build a 10-room primary school including seven classrooms, teacher’s office, and meeting

rooms, along with a nursery, bathrooms, and outdoor play spaces. According to Building Tomorrow, each school has capacity to serve 315 students in grades 1 through 7, and is also equipped with necessary infrastructure for students with physical disabilities. Puno says they held a fundraising car wash in Zionsville. “We held a ‘Car Wash for Uganda’ and donors could pick their price, contributing whatever they wanted,” he says. “We made about $1,000 on that car wash.” He says they will continue to fundraise with events this year. “We want to raise the money to build the school. We want to travel there in Summer of 2023 to see people who are helping put it together and put our own physical touch in, and work with our hands to help build the school.” It is that desire to be hands-on, to dig into whatever it is that he is doing in the moment— that gives you an idea of how Puno works. Jump in. Both feet. Learn more. “When I had the pleasure of teaching Justin, he consistently made connections to previous knowledge, books he had read, articles with which he was familiar, and stories he heard,” Mihm says. “Justin is a deep thinker, and absolutely genuine.” “Justin also has the impressive ability to see the ‘big picture’ while being vastly aware of the infinite tiny influences on an event, idea, or philosophy,” Mihm says of Puno’s intelligence that is impressive for a Middle School student. “Justin asks really great questions, not only of his teachers and the subjects they teach, but also of himself and how he thinks about what he’s learning.” “My favorite part of watching and working with Justin over the years is he brings integrity and kindness to everything he does,” Tormoehlen says. “Most people I have met over the years that have his drive and passion often struggle balancing that during social interactions. Justin is a model of how to be highly competitive, yet he is genuinely considerate of the people.” •

BUILDING TOMORROW WEBSITE:

BUILDINGTOMORROW.ORG