Etienne Phillips is good at math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, not “good.” Very good, definitely. Great, perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an NC State undergraduate, Phillips has excelled in graduate-level classes and research projects on topics that could make anyone less arithmetically inclined feel faint. Please consider: \u201cMultivariate Fibonacci-like Polynomials and Their Applications\u201d and \u201cPoset Structure of Kohnert Diagrams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has completed math internships, held math-related leadership roles on campus, and received awards and life-changing scholarships. He has tutored high school and college students in subjects like calculus, covering a small whiteboard with numbers and symbols while he explained enthusiastically over Zoom \u2013 camera and tripod positioned just so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost even more beautiful when you love something to see someone else starting to appreciate it too,\u201d Phillips said \u2013 and math definitely is something he loves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the (figurative) distance he traveled to arrive at May graduation and the (literal) distance he soon will travel with commencement behind him, on his next stop toward a planned doctorate? Those lengths are more difficult to quantify. Even for a promising young mathematician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, he has transformed his life so much that not long ago, a friend jokingly referred to him as \u201cEtienne 2.0.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want people to know that things are possible,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cYou can go to graduate school. Wherever you are, whatever your situation, so much is possible if you\u2019re committed and really motivated. Believe it and find the right support. There\u2019s a huge discrepancy between my track record before NC State and at NC State, where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, at a small charter high school in Asheville, Phillips was one of those students who made solid, not terribly noteworthy, grades without trying too much. He was living life, \u201cjust doing whatever,\u201d he said. Few of the 30-odd classmates graduating with him planned to head to college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was never really encouraged much as far as doing well in school,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, I was encouraged against it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he ended up applying to a few colleges, craving a broader view of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against the odds, Phillips headed to Guilford College to study psychology and had a great experience on the social side, making good friends and discovering a lot about who he is as a person. On the academic side, well, he realized that he really, really liked math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t enjoy math until I realized the creative part of math,\u201d he said. \u201cSomeone had an idea in math and now you can explore it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Math in its purest form, Phillips decided, does not stand in stark contrast to all the humanities, like many people think. It resembles the discipline that ended up becoming his academic minor at NC State, philosophy \u2013 \u201cexcept with a correct answer,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talking with faculty, he decided he would need to transfer from Guilford and pursue pure (vs. applied) math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enter, COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n