Did you know that math teachers actually want you to do well? Surprising, right? Math department head Suzanne Halloran and math teacher Mayan Benami said they want their students to succeed.

“In high school my math teachers weren’t very inspiring, so I wanted to become a math teacher to inspire others and help people see the beauty of math and feel accomplished, so they can do whatever they want to do in the future and not have math hold them back,” Halloran said.

Halloran has worked at Harvard-Westlake School for seven years and is the head of the math department. She’s always loved studying math and acknowledges that a lot of people don’t.

“Traditionally math is a subject that not everyone loves so it gives me the opportunity to open students’ eyes to a fun and interesting math class,” Benami said.

Benami wants his students to have a deeper meaning with math instead of just remembering the material, but to actually learn it.

“I hope I can inspire them to love learning, that’s my number one goal,” Benami said.