MathScore Philippines, October 30, 2014

For my very last day in the Philippines, I actual did something that felt like real work.  We went to the MathScore Philippines office.

Here is photographic evidence that I was finally doing real work on this business trip!  OK, you could argue that I was working every day of this trip, but from a programmer's perspective, you aren't doing any work unless you get to touch some code, and that day, for a short period of time, I was actually touching code.  That's Jake sitting next to me.  He is in charge of their IT operations, and apparently he knows some PHP and SQL too!

My nerd session was cut short by a visit from some administrators and parents of an especially bright 14-year-old math genius and his sister.  He recently won a gold medal at a math competition in Singapore and also won a bronze medal in China.  Besides those big ones, he has one quite a few other honors.  They told me that he specifically aspires to get into MIT.

Well, if you are going to tell me that, we have to talk!  I spent quite a lot of time coaching them about what it really takes to get into MIT.  Like many Asians, Filipinos don't know that American schools care deeply about extracurricular activities.  I emphasized that nearly everybody I knew at MIT had a non-academic talent.  So far, he has proven that he's academically qualified, but what he needs to prove is that he's well-rounded.   I pointed out that every year, many students that have won gold medals in international math competitions don't get into MIT.  He's only 14, however, so he has time to develop more interests.  It turns out that he's also great at chess, but that's also nerdy.  He is very good at journalism, however, so I emphasized that if he wants to take that to the next level, he needs to put himself in a position to write a story that gets noticed.  Even journalism, in my mind, is still kind of nerdy.  I mentioned that sports was a great option, but that sparked no interest in him.  I suggested playing a musical instrument, which might have interested him.  So my next suggestion was that when he's in high school, he should become the founder of a new club and become president.   American universities love it when students have leadership skills.  I hope he takes that to heart.  I hope he forms a solid vision of what he wants to do with this life.  I hope he gets into MIT.

Look, Filipinos eating food.  What a surprise :-)

Finally, we visited one last school before it was time for me to go to the airport.  We had plenty to talk about, but the conversations were all similar to things I've mentioned earlier.

My day concluded with a ride to the Manila airport.  Traffic was predictably terrible, especially because of a major holiday on November 1st that causes many families to travel through Manila on their way to various provinces.  Henry, however, was being very conservative, so we arrived at the airport many hours before my flight was to depart.  It's a good thing Henry supplied me with some pesos because there's a fairly hefty terminal fee that you have to pay when you fly out of the Manila airport.  The cost might have been around 550 pesos, which is somewhere around $12.  

In conclusion, this was by far the most rewarding, fulfilling business trip I have ever taken.  It's one thing to sit at your computer all day and imagine people one day using what you are creating, and another thing entirely to see the fruits of your labors.  I've been building this business for over 11 years, and this trip absolutely confirms that my time has been well spent, and encourages me to stay on this course.  My lifelong mission (bucket list if you will) is to change the world in math education and hopefully other areas as well.  I've only scratched the surface so far, but will continue in my pursuit.

If you read all 4 of my posts, thanks for reading!  I experienced so many things that are not reflected in any of these posts, but I hope I did a good enough job telling my story.