A Faculty Built From Olympiad Coaches
Proof School’s competition pedigree starts at the top. Head of School Sam Vandervelde was a member of the 1989 United States International Mathematical Olympiad team and later co-created the Mandelbrot Competition, a proof-based national math competition that has run in schools for decades. Founder Paul Zeitz, chair of the mathematics department at the University of San Francisco, has coached US International Mathematical Olympiad teams, co-founded the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad and the San Francisco Math Circle, and wrote The Art and Craft of Problem Solving, a standard text used well beyond Proof School’s own classrooms.
That background shapes how math gets taught day to day. Collectively, Proof School’s 26 faculty members hold 31 advanced degrees, and the math program is built around the same problem-solving, proof-writing tradition its founders spent their careers developing for competition math, not adapted from a standard high school curriculum after the fact.
Recent Student Achievements
USA Mathematical Olympiad and EGMO
Hannah Fox earned a Silver Award at the 2025 USA Mathematical Olympiad while attending Proof School, one of a small number of students nationwide invited to the Olympiad each year on the strength of qualifying exam scores. That same year, Fox represented the United States on the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad team, which placed second overall and was the only team in the competition to earn all gold medals; Fox herself ranked 9th individually out of the full international field.
Regeneron Science Talent Search
Rivka Lipkovitz was named a finalist in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious research competition for high school seniors, and placed fifth nationally among just 40 finalists chosen from thousands of applicants. Her project used statistical modeling, including matrix completion and synthetic difference-in-differences methods, to study how strict voter ID laws affect election turnout.
| Student Name | Achievement | Year |
| Hannah Fox | USA Mathematical Olympiad Silver Award, European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad team member | 2025 |
| Rivka Lipkovitz | Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalist (5th place nationally) | 2025 |
How the Curriculum Sets This Up
Proof School’s daily schedule sets aside two full hours for math alone, every afternoon, all year. That time is spent on proof writing, presentations, and collaborative problem solving rather than lecture and worksheet practice, the same skills that competitions like USAMO and research programs like Regeneron STS ultimately test.
The math sequence itself runs unusually deep for a secondary school: alongside standard offerings like calculus and geometry, students can take Number Theory, Group and Ring Theory, Non-Euclidean and Point-Set Topology, Complex and Functional Analysis, Category Theory, and Axiomatic Set Theory, courses more commonly found in a college math department than a 6-12 school. The math program is further supported by an annual school-wide AI tournament, a student-run problem of the week, and participation in regional and national math competitions.
Top Tips for Applying
- Don’t assume a student needs olympiad experience to apply; Proof School admits across a wide range of math backgrounds and builds competition readiness over time.
- Highlight any experience with math circles, proof-based problem sets, or open-ended puzzles in the student questionnaire; these map directly onto how Proof School actually teaches math.
Best Practices for Families
- Treat competition results as one signal among many, not a prerequisite; the school’s own admissions process weighs the Math Ollie’s problem-solving process well above prior competition record.
- Ask current families or the admissions office how students move from Proof School’s classroom curriculum into competitions like USAMO, since participation is built into the culture rather than a separate track.
Considering Proof School for a Math-Driven Student?
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What This Means for Applying Families
For families evaluating Proof School, the school’s competition and research track record is worth reading less as a threshold to clear and more as a picture of where the school’s teaching philosophy can lead. A student does not need a USAMO qualification to be admitted, but a student admitted to Proof School is entering a math community built, faculty included, around exactly that kind of problem solving.
A Track Record Built Into the Classroom
Proof School’s recent honors, from a USAMO Silver Award and an EGMO gold-medal team finish to a top-five national Regeneron Science Talent Search placement, are not the product of a separate competition program bolted onto a regular school day. They come out of a faculty of former Olympiad coaches and a curriculum that spends two hours a day on the same proof-based thinking those competitions reward.
Want to Know if Proof School Is the Right Fit?
Cardinal Education helps families evaluate whether a math-first school like Proof School matches their child’s academic profile and goals.
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