People of the Pack: Naomi Giesen

Naomi Giesen is a junior majoring in mathematics and the president of the USD Math Club.

Molly Sperlich: What do you want to do with your degree?

Naomi Giesen: I’m not quite sure yet, but I don’t want to teach. That’s just not really my thing.

MS: What are your roles in the Math Club?

NG: We are still sort of a small club, so we are trying to figure out how we fit into USD. I’m not particularly in charge of anything versus the other two. We have a vice president and a secretary-treasurer and we make decisions jointly.

MS: How many members do you have?

NG: Regular members, there’s the three of us and then two that show up regularly. But we usually have about eight members show up to meetings.

MS: Is your club primarily math majors, or are there some students who aren’t?

NG: Yes, it is primarily math majors. We do have a physics major and a computer science major.

MS: What do you do at your meetings?

NG: We usually have professors come and give talks about something. Last year, one of the really memorable ones was “Knot theory.” It taught how you could predict how to untie a knot based on different combinations. We try and incorporate cool math concepts to show people math isn’t some awful thing.

MS: Do you put on any events throughout the year?

NG: Yes, our more common events are movie nights. But, we just did Pi day and we give out free pies in the MUC. This year we had 36 pies and they were gone in an hour.

MS: What movies do you typically show? Are they related to math?

NG: We watched “Hidden Figures” and just recently “The Imitation Game.”

MS: When do you guys meet?

NG: We typically meet Wednesdays at 7:00. That’s the time we always meet, but it’s not always regularly scheduled, so we don’t necessarily meet every week.