NEW ORLEANS — Two thousand years ago, a Greek philosopher taught the Western world the Pythagorean theorem. Since then, mathematicians have come and gone but last year two local teenagers made history.
WWL Louisiana coverage of their breakthrough garnered the St Mary’s Academy students’ national attention, and with that came a donation no one ever expected.
Some may call Calcea Johnson and Ne’kiya Jackson mathematical prodigies, in 2023 the St Mary’s Academy duo unraveled a 2000-year-old mathematical theory. The two essentially presented new proofs for the Pythagorean theorem. Their discovery saw them become viral genius sensations and landed them on 60 minutes. That’s how Basketball legend Charles Barkley saw their achievement and then donated one million dollars to their school. They got their first cheque last week.
School President Pamela Rogers says they’ll get $100,000 per year over a 10-year period.
Rogers said, “We are extremely grateful to Mr. Barkley for selecting us to receive his very very generous donation.” She went on to say, “We know they have a tremendously bright future even though both of them are math majors.”
She says the money will allow students to visit colleges and will also fund daily academic resources. “It means that every student here at St Mary’s in grades 8 through 12 have the ability to visit colleges, so they can see what their future holds for them.”
Senior Christina Blazio loves maths and has soaring ambitions, she says she’s ready to find solutions to the equation we call life, saying, “It’s like wow, I literally sat in classes with these girls and they made such a huge impact and it makes me want to strike to do as I can.”
She went on to say, “I want to get accepted into a good four-year institution, graduate and go to medical school, my end goal is to be an endocrinologist or a hematologist.”
She hopes Calcea Johnson and Ne’kiya Jackson’s discovery and the donation will prove to other young women they should never stop fighting for their dreams. “Any young black girls, I never want you to think that you can’t do something, because of your skin color because of the way you look… It is absolutely possible. You don’t have to have the best upbringing, you don’t have to have money, just do you, do what you can do, and I promise you will thrive.”
Because she says, the only person standing in your way is the person you see staring back at you in the mirror.
Johnson is now at LSU and Jackson is at Xavier University.
