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For some educators, the most meaningful work is the kind that lets them give back to the places that shaped them. That’s why we’re excited to wrap up 2025 by sharing the story of Dr. Francisco Alarcón.

Francisco is a longtime member of our Executive Advisory Board and a math professor who grew up in Guatemala. He reflects on how early opportunities led to a chance meeting with Mathkind’s cofounder, a small moment that sparked years of collaboration to strengthen math learning around the world.

A Chance Encounter Leads to Change

I was born and raised in Guatemala and have always loved mathematics. My family placed a strong value on education, and—unlike most children growing up in Guatemala—we had the means for me to attend one of the most selective private schools in Guatemala City.

Fewer than half of Guatemalan children attend high school, so after graduating I was fortunate to continue my studies at the country’s only university offering a mathematics program. That experience prepared me well and ultimately enabled me to gain admission and financial support to pursue graduate studies at the University of Iowa.

A Pivotal Moment

Remaining in the United States was not my original plan, but after completing graduate school I began teaching mathematics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2015, during an NCTM meeting in Boston, I had a chance encounter with Chadd McGlone, one of the founders of Teachers2Teachers—the organization that would later become Mathkind.

I was immediately drawn to the photographs he shared of teachers and children from Santa Avelina in the Ixil region of El Quiché, Guatemala. His vision and enthusiasm were compelling, and a few months later I joined a team from Mathkind on a trip to work with teachers in the Galápagos Islands.

Math Comes Home

In 2016, I had the opportunity to spend a week working with teachers in Santa Avelina, an experience unlike any other in my career. After several days of collaboration and relationship-building, I shared with the local Maya teachers some algorithms I had developed for computing with Maya numerals. Within minutes, Domingo, one of the local teachers, took over the lesson.

This gave me the profound privilege of watching Maya teachers, speaking in their own language, engage with the mathematics of their ancestors—knowledge that had been inaccessible to their community for centuries. It was a moment that was both powerful and deeply moving.

My work with Mathkind has provided invaluable opportunities for my own professional growth while allowing me to contribute to improving mathematics education in Guatemala and Ecuador. It has been a meaningful way to support teachers and expand educational opportunities for children in the communities that shaped my early life.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY

If Francisco’s experience resonates with you, we invite you to support this work with a year-end gift. Every contribution helps create more opportunities for teachers and students around the world. Your generosity allows educators to strengthen math learning in their own communities.