NBA legend Charles Barkley. Image Credit: Basket Network
Mary’s Academy in New Orleans received a $1 million pledge from former NBA star Charles Barkley after two of its students made a unique breakthrough in mathematics. Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, then high-school seniors, developed a new proof of the 2,000-year-old Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry. Their work was eventually submitted for recognition at an American Mathematical Society conference in March 2023.
BasketballNetwork reported that Barkley has often urged students to think about professions such as medicine, law, engineering and teaching rather than seeing athletics as their only path. The SportsRush reported that Johnson and Jackson worked on the problem for months, with Johnson’s parents recalling how many pages of calculations accumulated during the process. Mary’s by the time Barkley’s donation was announced. Axios reported that Johnson became a student at Louisiana State University, while Jackson began studying at Xavier University.
St. Their work attracted attention after they presented it to the American Mathematical Society, and Barkley later saw their achievement on television. The story prompted him to support the school and the opportunities it gives students beyond the classroom. The former NBA star has spoken publicly about encouraging young Black students to consider careers beyond sports and entertainment. Their work gave him an example of the kind of academic accomplishment he had been encouraging students to pursue. The discovery was not the result of a quick classroom exercise. By then, teachers and their families understood that the students had produced something far beyond an ordinary school assignment. Johnson and Jackson had already moved on from St. Their paths after high school also show how quickly an extraordinary school achievement can become part of a longer academic journey. For the school, their work also became part of its wider academic story. The donation linked Barkley’s interest in education with an achievement that had begun as two students working through a difficult mathematical problem.
St. Mary’s Academy will use the $1 million pledge to support students
Mary’s president Pamela Rogers described the gift as support for students as they pursue the ambitions they develop during their time at the school, as reported by Axios.
The school said the money would be used to strengthen its educational experience and create more opportunities for students to develop both inside the classroom and within the New Orleans community. St.