Posted 1:22 p.m. Thursday, July 11, 2024
Alum’s journey from struggling math student to Iowa State University mathematics lecturer
This fall, UW-La Crosse alumnus Mitch Haeuser will start lecturing mathematics courses at Iowa State University. As he looks out over a sea of students, he will know some are just like he was as an undergraduate.
“I don’t know what it is like to be a super math genius who never struggles at all,” says Haeuser, who earned his Ph.D. in mathematics in May. “I can put myself in the students’ shoes and understand how it can be a hard subject to tackle.”
Haeuser’s journey wasn’t always smooth. He struggled with math during his early years at UW-La Crosse, but with the help of dedicated faculty and his own determination, he turned his academic performance around. By his senior year, he had transformed a 1.6 GPA into six full-ride graduate school offers.
Learning to give himself time to work through problems and being OK with failure were key to his success. “Every single day there is a failure,” he says. “I don’t treat that as a bad thing. It gives you information on potentially what not to do and what you could do to move forward.”
As a graduate teaching assistant at Iowa State, Haeuser encourages his students to seek help from instructors and peers. He wants them to use office hours and learn from his own experiences in overcoming academic challenges.
That strong student support was something Haeuser frequently experienced at UW-La Crosse. Other alumni recall similar support from the Mathematics Department faculty, including Mary Vaughan, who switched from a chemistry major to a mathematics major later in her undergraduate career.
Vaughan remembers how the faculty helped her succeed and graduate on time, inspiring her to pursue a doctoral degree in mathematics. She recalls the roles many played in her journey, including current UWL Interim Associate Dean Robert Allen, who allowed her to join his over-enrolled “Intro to Mathematical Logic” course, and Professor Susan Kelly, who became her advisor and mentor, assisting her with graduate school applications. Professors Tushar Das and Edward Kim provided additional encouragement, while Professor James Peirce became her research advisor and motivated her to apply to graduate school.
“I have often wondered if I would be in mathematics or would have earned my Ph.D. if I had attended a different school for my undergraduate studies,” she says. “As an undergrad, I worked hard, but I lacked confidence. It was my collective teachers and mentors at UWL that helped me seize the opportunities that have led me to where I am today -- across the world in Australia!”
After earning her Ph.D. from Iowa State, Vaughan spent three years as a postdoc at the University of Texas at Austin. For the past year, she has been a research associate at the University of Western Australia in Perth. She maintains contact with UWL mathematics faculty and has even returned to speak with the UWL Mathematics Club.
Haeuser and Vaughan are part of a growing network of UWL alumni who attend graduate school at Iowa State. Since Vaughan started, other UWL alumni including Kean Fallon, Laura Zinnel, and Joe Miller have joined ISU as math graduate students.
“We have all naturally bonded from this shared experience,” says Vaughan. “When Mitch came to Iowa State, I checked in with him regularly to see how his first year was going. We would meet up at a local coffee shop to catch up or study and sometimes went rock climbing. We have remained friends to this day.”
UWL mathematics alumni go on to various graduate schools across the nation and are put in touch with contacts from UWL's math alumni network at those schools, explains UWL Mathematics Professor Tushar Das. UWL Mathematics & Statistics majors also have the opportunity to pursue a master's degree in Applied Statistics or Data Science at UWL.
Several of these undergraduate students had not even considered graduate school until their second or third year as undergraduates, and each one was amazed to learn about the math faculty's belief in them being accepted with full-funding to mathematics doctoral programs with possibilities for additional fellowships, says Das.
"I experience great personal joy in challenging my students and inspiring them to achieve beyond their own expectations,” says Das. “As a result, the vast majority of my time is involved with my teaching and intensive mentoring of our burgeoning constellation of graduate school-bound majors, many of whom are from underrepresented groups in STEM, such as women and first-generation students.”
Das says other faculty in the Mathematics and Statistics Department also mentor their students. It’s a reason the department was the UW System’s 2015 Regents Teaching Excellence Award recipient.
Haeuser and Vaughan went on to share an advisor at ISU, Pablo Raúl Stinga, who praises their exceptional work in their dissertations and beyond.
ISU Professor and Chair of Mathematics Eric Weber says the program is likely appealing to UWL students because of its size — large enough that students can pursue exciting research, yet small enough to have a strong sense of community with fellow students and faculty. UWL alumni entering the program have some shared characteristics like a strong sense of perseverance and purpose, which are beneficial for success in a rigorous PhD program like the one at ISU, says Weber.
“I think UWL does very well preparing students for graduate study in mathematics,” he says. “I think this occurs both at an academic level and at a personal level.”
For those considering graduate school, Haeuser advises having a clear goal. “Graduate school is five years ... so you have to really want it,” he says. But he also encourages prospective students not to be intimidated. Graduate school isn’t only for “super math geniuses.”
“Don’t ever think you are not enough if that’s what’s holding you back,” he says.
Learn more about UWL's dedicated mathematics faculty
2024 Eagle Teaching Excellence Award Winner Sherwin Toribio
2020 Eagle Teaching Excellence Award Winner Tushar Das
2019 Eagle Teaching Excellence Award Winner Nathan Warnberg
2018 Eagle Teaching Excellence Award Winner Whitney George
2015 Eagle Teaching Excellence Award Winner Edward Kim