Senior Olivia Kaminske changed her major 12 times before finding the one that stuck.
“I’ve been every major under the sun,” said Kaminske, a mathematics major who goes by Liv. “I just kept finding something new and interesting.”
Now preparing to graduate from Keene State, Olivia is presenting original research at national conferences and applying to Ph.D. programs with the goal of becoming a professor, but she said her path to mathematics was anything but straightforward.
Kaminske said she originally enrolled as a computer science major and took a required math course with Caitlyn Parmelee, associate professor of mathematics. She said something about Parmelee’s class felt different.
“Something about her class and the way she teaches, I just loved it,” Kaminske said.
After visiting office hours to ask about research opportunities, Kaminske said she was introduced to Parmelee’s work on neural networks. She said she remembers sitting through her first research meeting and understanding “literally nothing.”
“Not even bits and pieces,” she said. “Genuinely nothing.”
Instead of walking away, Kaminske said she stayed curious by reading the papers, asking questions and working through concepts she had never formally studied. She said that within weeks she was contributing to the project, and by the first semester of her junior year she officially switched her major to mathematics.
“The second I became a math major, I was like, ‘Oh. I figured it out,’” she said. “These are my people.”
What began as mentorship soon evolved into collaboration. Parmelee said Kaminske stood out immediately.
“Very sharp, very bright and very engaged,” Parmelee said about Kaminske. “Working with Olivia on this project is very much like working with a collaborator rather than working with a student.”
Kaminske described her and Parmalee’s research dynamic as a partnership rather than a traditional classroom hierarchy.
“It’s not like she gives me assignments and I go do them,” Kaminske said. “We bounce ideas off each other. Sometimes she comes up with an idea and I ruin it. Sometimes I come up with one and she ruins it.”
That process of trial and error is what Kaminske said excites her most about research.
“The thing that makes research so cool is that you don’t have an answer,” she said. “You have to find it. And when you do, you’re like, ‘I did that.’”
This year, Kaminske took that research beyond Keene State and onto a national stage, presenting at a conference hosted by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She said she initially applied for a poster presentation but was later invited to give an oral presentation, a more selective honor.
Kaminske said the presentation took place in front of nearly 200 attendees, including faculty members and graduate program representatives, some being from programs she had applied to.
“It was just me,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone there.”
Although she had presented her work before, Kaminske said this was the largest audience she presented to yet and her first time presenting without a familiar face in the crowd.
“It was definitely scary,” she said. “But I locked in. I had this flow state. It was so fun.”
Afterward, Kaminske said faculty members approached her with questions and feedback.
“When people ask questions, that’s how you know they were really listening,” said Kaminske.
Parmelee called the opportunity “a really big honor,” especially for a student coming from a small department and a small school.
“It says a lot about her,” Parmelee said.
Kaminske said she transferred to Keene State after not feeling at home at another institution. Even after transferring, she continued switching majors, unsure of where she fit academically. She said mathematics changed that.
“I felt like I belonged,” she said. “I felt respected.”
She credited the mathematics department’s supportive culture for giving her the confidence to pursue research and graduate school.
“I truly could not be anywhere close to where I am without how supportive our faculty are,” she said.
Parmelee seconded that philosophy.
“I believe that everyone can do math,” she said. “We’re going to start from where you’re at.”
As graduation approaches, Kaminske said she is waiting to hear back from the Ph.D. programs to which she applied. She said her long-term goal is to balance research and teaching as a professor, potentially exploring mathematical applications in medicine and biology.
“It’s competitive. It’s hard,” she said. “But that’s the dream.”
For students who may feel intimidated by math or unsure about research, Kaminske offered simple advice: Try it.
“It’s not nearly as scary as you think,” she said. “Don’t be afraid of not knowing something. That’s the whole point.”
Elianny Nunez can be contacted at
