USF math professor shows students the beauty of numbers

TAMPA, Fla. - Math has always come easy to Dr. Ruthmae Sears. As a child, she excelled, earning perfect scores on standardized tests. As an adult, it became her career. 

Teachers on her home island of Nassau in the Bahamas fostered her love for numbers. 

She was doing so well that her 10th grade teacher signed her up for the Teacher Cadet Program. 

"I got to meet some of the brightest minds across the whole Bahamas because we have 700 islands and kids. And so they became my friends. And I also became siblings, so brothers and sisters from other another mother. And we've always kept that circle," she said.

It was in those classes than Dr. Sears found her love of math.

 "It was there I started to also think about the relevance of mathematics because students always think it's X, Y and Z. And I would always say, 'No, math is far more. Math is applications… and letting them see the beauties of mathematics," she said.

Dr. Sears went to college in the Bahamas where she was honored for her work with the prestigious Organization of American States Fellowship – a scholarship collaboration with the U.S. government and foreign countries. 

"They paid for my tuition, housing, airfare, rent to go to Indiana University," Dr. Sears said.

She went on to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics and is now an associate professor at the University of South Florida. 

"Teaching is a profession that requires the gift of love and just really doing it. Not to just really highlighting not just your content knowledge, but the humanity in the space," Dr. Sears said.

Now she has received another honor in her field: a fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sears is the first Black faculty member from USF to receive the honor.

"I was actually really grateful. I was on a call, actually, with my colleagues from the Tampa Black Heritage Festival. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just got in!’" Sears recalled. 

For Dr. Sears, teaching is more than just numbers.

"When you ask students, what do they remember about teaching? It's not always the content they remember. It's how you make them feel. So really think about what are you truly teaching? And so I tell them I teach mathematics, but I teach people, and I think that's important."