Emanuel Jinich ’79 — Mexico

Emanuel Jinich ’79, a math major, discovered Swarthmore’s education program his junior year. It would mark the beginning of a prolific career.

“I’ve dedicated all my life to mathematics education,” says Jinich, who has been a school director since 1990, the head of K–12 private schools in Mexico City, and the author of mathematics textbooks.

In the early 2000s, he and a group of colleagues developed a mathematical software program for fifth- and sixth-graders that was sent to every public school in Mexico as part of a Ministry of Education project promoting the use of computers in education.

Jinich is now head of the Sephardic Hebrew School, a private K–12 campus in Mexico City. But he’s never too far from the classroom, where he can be found teaching calculus one hour a day.

“It’s the best hour of the whole day,” says Jinich, who has taught continuously since Swarthmore, going on 40 years. He holds a master’s in mathematics education from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, in Mexico City.

“I don’t know why mathematics is so difficult for students to learn,” he adds. “If and when I retire from being a school director, I’m going to become a mathematics teacher full-time once again.”

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