Meet Nicholas Videen

Congratulations to Nicholas Videen, who graduated from CCNY in 2024 with a M.S. in Mathematics. He has also been teaching here since 2024.

Hear from Nick in his own words:

After spending many years as a musician and math tutor, I decided to return to school to study mathematics during the pandemic. I had always loved math, and I was excited to learn more. After completing a few undergraduate math courses remotely at the University of Minnesota, I enrolled in the master's program at CCNY. I loved every class I took, and I was blown away by how expansive each topic was. Having completed the master's degree, on the one hand I feel like I have learned a ton and have significantly developed my mathematical mind, but on the other hand I feel like I know so little. I certainly now have an unquenchable thirst to continue learning more.

I feel very lucky to have found CCNY. The courses were extremely interesting and motivating, and I loved the challenge they provided. I already miss the daily quest of seeing how much I could get my brain to do. Getting to know the professors and other students was invaluable. I very much enjoyed Weilin Li's classes, and one summer he kindly agreed to mentor me via the Rich internship. This internship allowed me to explore scientific computing and coding, topics which I wouldn't otherwise have had access to. The next summer I was fortunate enough to do an internship with the wonderful Joseph Bak in the area of approximation theory, using what I'd learned the previous summer to create computer programs and graphs in an investigation of approximation methods. I found the Rich program to be a fantastic enhancement to the MS degree that expanded my knowledge and kept me progressing through the summer.

Perhaps the opportunity for which I am most grateful was the chance to teach classes at CCNY as an adjunct lecturer. I discovered that I really love this type of teaching, which has significantly shaped my career goals. Looking forward, I hope to continue teaching math at the college level and perhaps find some other math-related pursuit. I'm excited to see what the future holds, and I'm grateful for the doors CCNY has opened for me.

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