UA freshman Kim Wojtak is the first recipient of a mathematics scholarship awarded by a UA program designed to attract students into the field of math education. Wojtak is a graduate of Palo Verde High School.

david sanders / arizona daily star

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It's no secret that math teachers are in high demand.

By some estimates, with the state now requiring four years of math in high school, Arizona will need an additional 400 math teachers.

Make that 399.

Kim Wojtak, a freshman at the University of Arizona, is the first recipient of a scholarship for future math teachers awarded through the UA Center of Recruitment and Retention.

The center got its start in 2001, with a goal of attracting and keeping math teachers at the middle- and high school levels.

The center offers mentoring programs and tutoring programs and workshops, and now it's adding a $1,000 annual scholarship to the mix.

The scholarship will be renewable for four years and requires a commitment to teach high school or middle-school math for four years after graduation.

Wojtak's math teacher at Palo Verde High School suggested she try for the award.

"I think there are a lot of people who have had a bad experience with math teachers, and I think I can make it more fun for kids who don't like it," she said.

Wojtak admits to being one of those students who didn't love math early on. Memorizing the multiplication and addition tables was a bit difficult, she said, but she learned to enjoy the problem-solving aspect of math.

Wojtak said she wants not only to make math more relevant so students can see real-world applications, but also to make it fun by incorporating Sudoku puzzles, for example, for extra credit.

The scholarship funding came from Stephen Willoughby, the former head of math education at the UA, who contributed $16,000 to the program. He said he's convinced Wojtak will "become not only a teacher, but an excellent teacher."

Willoughby, who taught at the UA from 1987 to 2002, said there's one major reason for the ongoing shortage, which he said has plagued the education community since 1940.

"The most obvious reason is, you can get a whole lot more money doing almost anything else," he said, adding math skills are in such demand that when he was a classroom teacher, he was regularly offered jobs for twice what he made.

Willoughby said he was willing to step up with his own contribution because he's so concerned about the future of the work force.

Even workers in the medical field need math skills, he said, so that they can adequately dispense medication in the proper measurements. He's particularly critical of the news media for what he sees as a dearth of analytical skills.

"I'm appalled at what appears in newspapers and magazines on everything from statistical reports on medicine to financials. And unfortunately, the people who read those stories are no better off. We need better-educated people as citizens to carry on more complex mathematical thinking."

UA math professor Fred Stevenson, who founded the center, said philanthropists like Willoughby are particularly important in these tight times.

"We test at the level of a Third World country in the 21st century, and that does not bode well for our continued unmatched success in education at the graduate level," he said.

"Focusing on K-12 teachers is one of the most crucial aspects of righting the ship."