33 High School Students,
9 Accepted to Harvard.
— A New Model of Success in the Age of AI
Event Description
When AI can now solve IMO-level problems in minutes—problems that once took even the brightest minds days to crack; when top students from the U.S. Math Olympiad Program are unexpectedly rejected by MIT in early admissions—some of the most trusted “paths to success” are quietly breaking down.
Against this backdrop, one phenomenon stands out:
In 2026, 9 out of 33 high school students closely observed over time by Prof. Po-Shen Loh, former national coach of the U.S. Math Olympiad team, were admitted to Harvard. Notably, these weren’t typical “top competition winners.” The question is: What led Harvard to choose them?
In this session, Prof. Loh challenges what “success” really means today by asking these questions:
- Why are top universities looking beyond grades?
- What qualities are they really looking for in students?
- How can students, from elementary through high school, build skills that actually shape their future?
- What choices can parents make now that will shape their children’s future over the next decade?
💡 You’ll learn:
How this group of students, whom Prof. Loh has closely mentored and observed over time, grew by building strong communication, critical thinking, character, and empathy—and how, by focusing on growth rather than admissions, they went on to earn recognition from top universities around the world.
🎯 Guidance for Immigrant Families:
This talk also includes a dedicated focus on supporting families raising children in a new cultural and educational environment. It offers clear, practical insights into navigating the U.S. education system and children’s long-term development, addressing the high-stakes decisions first-generation immigrant families must make, often without a reliable roadmap, and how those decisions can meaningfully shape a child’s future if understood early or limit it if missed.
😎 Who Should Attend:
- Parents who want to prepare their kids for success
- Teachers and Administration looking for powerful strategies to adopt in education
- Students debating future careers
- Community leaders focused on developing opportunity
- Anyone curious about how AI, education, and the job market will shape the next 20 years
📅 When:
Friday, May 1st, 2026, 7:00 – 8:30 PM ET.
🏫 Where:
Conference Room
9801 Washingtonian Blvd
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Get Directions via Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GLR55xCH1cSQ2rbKA
Speaker Info
The speaker, Po-Shen Loh, has traveled to over 100 cities in recent years, delivering talks on this topic and gaining insights from diverse audiences—a tour that was even featured by The Wall Street Journal.
Po-Shen Loh is a social entrepreneur and inventor working across mathematics, education, and healthcare. He is a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the national coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad team. He has pioneered innovations ranging from a scalable way for people to learn challenging math live online from brilliant people to a new way to control pandemics by leveraging self-interest.
He has earned distinctions ranging from an International Mathematical Olympiad silver medal to the USA Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He was the coach of Carnegie Mellon University’s math team when it achieved its first-ever #1 rank among all North American universities, and the coach of the USA Math Olympiad team when it achieved its first-ever back-to-back #1-rank victories in 2015 and 2016, and then again in 2018 and 2019. He featured in or co-created videos totaling over 21 million YouTube views.
Po-Shen received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Caltech in 2004, graduating with the highest GPA in his class. He received a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 2005, where he was supported by a Winston Churchill Foundation Scholarship. He continued his studies at Princeton, supported by a Hertz Foundation Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, where he completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at the end of 2009, and has been on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University ever since.
Acknowledgment
LIVE by Po-Shen Loh
Chinese Association for Science and Technology — D.C. Chapter (旅美科协DC分会)