Spotlight on Kanzah
It’s no doubt that Kanzah, KLS’s newest math teacher, is a welcome addition to the faculty. Kanzah, who teaches Calculus, Stats, and Data Science, has truly shown a passion for math [add something here]. But who is Kanzah really?
Did you know her favorite anime is One Piece? Did you know that she was part of UCLA’s Whine and Cheese club? Read on to find out all about Kanzah, including her college days and her experience teaching at KLS so far.
Kanzah was born in the US, but moved to Pakistan shortly a few months later, where she grew up.. She graduated high school there, before applying to UCLA, where she went into for [major].
Kanzah has had a love of math since her elementary school days. When asked if she knew she wanted to go into math from a young age, Kanzah responses with,
“I always knew I was either good at it, or the times where I messed up, I just didn’t know those things were legal. For example, when subtracting larger numbers from smaller numbers, you just get a negative number. I didn’t know that, but I did that for one of my tests, and I got it wrong then, but now I realize that you can do it. Little things like that made me realize that math is better than the other subjects.”
Kanzah explained how she loved math because as she explained, “it comes so much easier to me, because you don’t need to learn much. You don’t need to remember that many things if you just make it a muscle memory, like formulas and stuff.”
Kanzah is also unique in the sense that she recently went through the college application process. She explained how she applied to UCLA as an Out-of-State student, but that her transcripts were similar to those of an international student.
“That did kind of hinder my search for colleges, because I didn’t grow up here. I didn’t know what the universities were for math. I knew I could look them up, but it's one thing hearing from people who have gone there versus just a quick google search which was different for me or that I couldn’t do. I didn’t have the luxury of visiting before applying. Everything depended on me just researching how to apply. There were a lot of things I had to find out by myself. I had my aunts and cousins go over my writing prompts. UCLA was one I went into, so that’s what I decided on.
In addition, Kanzah also took the SAT! She said she practiced all on her own using online resources and Khan Academy.
Kanzah explained when entering college, she experienced a culture shock – she wasn’t expecting people to be so welcoming. In her first year, everything was online, so she wasn't allowed on campus. She didn’t get the chance to interact with many people.
