"Being able to explore different perspectives—I think there are just so many things that come from math that are so beautiful that you don’t really see if you just think about it as numbers."
By Gardner Rees '25
Alexa Banyangos joins College Prep as the newest member of the math department. In her interview with the Radar, she reflects on the role of mentorship and connection in her teaching style.
Alexa, who was hired this summer, holds an MA in Education from the Alder School of Education and a BS in mathematics from Pomona College, where she also played basketball as a recruited athlete.
Alexa has experience teaching, including as a Fullbright Scholar in Thailand and most recently as a middle school teacher at KIPP Prize Preparatory Academy.
At College Prep, she currently teaches Math 4 and Math 2.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Radar: Introduce yourself to College Prep!
Alexa: Hi! I’m Alexa and I’m the new math teacher here. I think the big things that students tend to get to know about me quickly are that I love math and teaching math. I went to Pomona College, where I studied math. After Pomona, I got my master's specifically in math education at the Alder School of Education. I’ve taught middle school math in San Jose and high school in Thailand through my Fullbright. I was led to College Prep because it seemed like a very unique environment in the sense that it really embraced intellectual curiosity, and there seemed like there was a lot of space to explore math beyond just preparing for a test or just studying to hit critical procedural skills. There seems to be a lot of space for those interested in conversations about math and discussion based math teaching in general.
Radar: What's your background?
Alexa: Well, I was born in Manila in the Philippines and lived there until I was about eight years old, when I moved to the Bay Area, where I’ve been ever since. Growing up in the Bay Area specifically, a big part of my childhood was adjusting to American culture—whatever that means as a Filipino and Asian American. I think a big piece of that was my involvement in my church group, which was a big part of my family's assimilation into culture. But sports was part of that as well. Basketball is a big part of my life and continues to be. Another piece from my childhood was growing up in a school with a really strong music program, where I learned to play the clarinet and played in the school orchestra. Sports and music was how I engaged with and enjoyed school.
Radar: Where’d you go to high school and what were you interested in?
Alexa: I went to Carlmont High School down in Belmont. It's a public school. Basketball, music, and math, which I all loved from an early age, was my high school experience.
Radar: Could you talk a little about your academic experience at Carlmont?
Alexa: I was pretty STEM oriented in high school. Going to a public school, it was really easy to get super involved in those things. I remember at a certain point I was taking three or four math and science classes at the same time. I was super lucky to have amazing math teachers—many of whom I still chat with today. I didn’t really appreciate the humanities until I got to college. At Pomona, a liberal arts college, I was gently “forced” to explore beyond what I was used to. I think that was a really good thing in the long run.
Radar: Did you have a favorite class in high school?
Alexa: Probably Multivariable Calculus, which is the Calc 3 equivalent. I would say that it was a pretty unique opportunity. They only offered one of that class, and it was a space for people who really loved math. Growing up in a public school, loving math wasn’t super embraced, so I really appreciated that class.
Radar: What makes you love math so much?
Alexa: Something that I didn’t realize in high school was that you gain so many soft skills from math. While I think that actually solving math problems is a great, gratifying feeling, some of the things that I think about when I learn math are the logic skills you develop as you parse through a problem. I feel like math is really just philosophy with numbers. You learn how to communicate ideas, which I think math teaches you without you knowing. Being able to explore different perspectives—I think there are just so many things that come from math that are so beautiful that you don’t really see if you just think about it as numbers. There are so many applications for math.
Radar: Can you talk a little bit more about your college experience at Pomona?
Alexa: I would say that for college, I honestly wasn’t exploring liberal arts colleges at first, initially exploring technical colleges because I was so interested in math and STEM. But it just kind of happened that I had an opportunity to be recruited to play basketball at Pomona. I fell in love with the campus and the environment there. They have a gorgeous campus and the consortium thing really pulled me in as well. Initially, I think that I entered college thinking that I would just do math and play basketball, but I was pleasantly surprised that I found interests beyond those two things. I got really involved with the Asian American Organization, which led me to minor in Asian American Studies. I also got super interested in music history, which eventually led me to get into the intersection between music and math. My math thesis was actually on the application of graph theory in music theory.
Radar: What was it like to be a student-athlete in both college and high school?
Alexa: Growing up, school was always first. At no point did I ever think of myself as only a basketball player or a student. I knew in the back of my head that if I wanted to do both, I’d have to hold up both. Balancing things was difficult, but when you really love the things you're doing, it really doesn’t feel like hard work. When I embraced both, it felt so much easier. When I was growing up, I thought I had to separate the two: I wouldn’t talk about basketball at school, and I wouldn’t talk about school at basketball. At Pomona, we were all sort of in the same boat doing really high-level academics while playing basketball. We all really owned it—doing both, being super nerdy in an athletic space and being super athletic in a nerdy space.
Radar: Could you tell us a little about how you found yourself drawn to teaching?
Alexa: I wanted to go into teaching because of the mentorship aspect of it. I think that it stemmed from sports and the mentorship of playing and working with underclassmen. I found that teaching math sat at an intersection between many of my passions.
Radar: Could you talk a little about your experience as a Fulbright scholar?
Alexa: Yeah, I always knew that I wanted to be abroad, specifically in South East Asia, as someone who was from the Philippines. My Fulbright program in Lampang, Thailand, gave me the opportunity to pursue teaching while also being abroad. Unfortunately, teaching in the Philippines was not an option, but Thailand was the next place on my list. Culturally, there were a lot of similarities that I wanted to explore across different East Asian cultures. I got to teach conversational English, which was really different from teaching math. A lot of it was getting my students comfortable with conversation and teaching them about American culture. I really appreciated, as a POC, being able to shift the narrative about what American culture is. I think there were a lot of perceived notions about what an American was: people assumed I would be white and blonde, so I liked showing that being American meant different things to different people.
Radar: How do you approach teaching here?
Alexa: I think there are two pieces for me. The first is the idea of having an asset-based mindset: looking for what strengths students bring to the table beyond just what they do and don’t do well with math. I think you can really unlock students' understanding when you draw connections between different aspects and spaces. I try to teach students to bring their strengths, even if they aren’t traditionally academic strengths, to math class so they can be their whole selves. With that, when I think about students, I try to think about how I can tailor my classrooms so students can bring their strengths from all across their lives to math class. The second piece is I try to make math class not just a place to learn math. I try to use math as an avenue to teach students how to think differently, persevere, and communicate.
Radar: What do you hope students take away from your class?
Alexa: I would want students to feel that they got better at some skill beyond math, whether that be communication, confidence, or listening.
Radar: If you could teach any math class, what would it be?
Alexa: Combinatorics. I was telling some of my colleagues in the math department that it was my favorite class, and they were surprised it was even a class. It's really just counting, but having a whole course on it can be super fun, and you learn different ways of thinking about counting. We would try to figure out how many possible seating arrangements would be possible. It's kind of like what Lisie does.
Radar: What's your favorite equation or theorem?
Alexa: It might be too basic, but I love the Pythagorean Theorem. It has such a low barrier of entry and has so many uses.
Radar: Go-to basketball move?
Alexa: Definitely a step back. Or maybe driving left.
Radar: Who's your favorite basketball player?
Alexa: Growing up, it was Monta Ellis, who played for the Warriors before they were good. My dad used to say I was too short to play basketball, and I would tell him that Monta Ellis (6’3”) was carrying the Warriors. After that, it would be Kevin Durant.
Radar: Lebron or Jordan?
Alexa: Oh I hope this doesn’t get me canceled. I got Lebron.
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