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Elysia Price, Department Chair and Teacher of Mathematics

When Elysia Price joined Pennington in 2016, she knew what kinds of courses the Math Department offered. What she might not have known, however — our math teachers love their math and their costumes!

Coming from a public school where her class sizes averaged around thirty students, Price was very happy to have the opportunity to work with students on a more individual basis. Because the department likes to rotate teaching assignments, Price has taught several courses at Pennington. Most recently, she teaches Algebra I, Geometry, and Calculus, all of which she readily handles while serving as department chair, a role she has filled since 2019.

While many teachers discover a desire to become educators once they’ve tried other lines of work, Price knew at an early age that she wanted to teach! “I started with Algebra I in ninth grade,” recalls Price, “and by senior year, I was taking AP Calculus BC. I started doubling up on classes as soon as I could — math just clicked for me!”

After earning a double major in mathematics and French from Ursinus College, Price enrolled in an M.A.T. program right down the road at The College of New Jersey. Through that program, Price completed a student teaching program and later earned her teaching certification.

There are a few reasons why Price has enjoyed teaching and her role as department chair. She points to the flexibility that she and her colleagues enjoy in coming up with creative, interesting ways to present their material. This is in great contrast, she points out, to the rigidity that she faced when teaching in the public school system.

Under Price’s watch, the number of math offerings has continued to grow. Including semester courses and a few courses in our Computer Science and Engineering Department, Pennington now offers some twenty math courses, and Price has more in the planning stages. Recent additions such as Discrete Mathematics as well as Data Structures and Algorithms promise to challenge students and to prepare them for math at the college level.

Just as Price had done in high school, students who are interested in math are encouraged to “double up.” As Price notes, students are now choosing math electives, which wasn’t always the case. For example, ten years ago, fewer than a dozen students took a half-year course in statistics. Today, there are two full-year courses in regular statistics and two in AP Statistics!

Price is also proud of those students who choose to do math outside the classroom. Recently, Pennington has had enough interest to field a math contest team as well as two computer science teams; the computer science teams finished as co-champions in their divisions, each in fields of over 100 teams from all over the world!

Other than sporting a talented bunch of mathematicians, Price also has the opportunity to lead a very fun bunch of teachers. The Math Department has long been the leader in spirit-day pride. Their costumes are legendary! Ms. Price feels that this kind of spirit communicates to the students that the teachers enjoy being at school and working with them. In addition, students have also gotten to know Price on the lacrosse field where she has coached at the JV level and assisted the varsity program since she joined Pennington.

Price also keeps herself very busy when she is away from Pennington! For three years, Price was the director of adult sports leagues at PEAC Performance, a fitness center in nearby Ewing. Also, for the past fifteen summers, Price has utilized perhaps a different set of math skills as an accountant for a local environmental engineer.

Price also reserves some time for two hobbies: traveling and pickleball! In fact, this summer she and her partner travel to Illinois and Michigan where they will take part in singles and doubles tournaments.