2025 Zweng Awardees

The Program in Mathematics Education (PRIME) at Michigan State University is proud to announce the 2025 recipients of the Dr. Marilyn Zweng Endowed Graduate Student Award: Maria Cruciani, C. Davis, and Sadrack Luden Pagiling. Each of these exceptional students is committed to enhancing mathematics education through innovative practices and community engagement. 

Cruciani and Davis are in their third year of the doctoral program, while Pagiling is a second-year student. The Zweng Fellowship recognizes graduate students who actively contribute to improving mathematics teaching and learning, and who have strong ambassadorial work. 

Dr. Marilyn Zweng, a prominent figure in mathematics education, established this endowment to support PRIME students. A graduate of Michigan State University, she earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin and served as a professor and department head at the University of Iowa. Known for her innovative teaching methods, Dr. Zweng created the television show "Mathematics with Marilyn" to promote math literacy. She passed away in August 2019, leaving behind a legacy as a philanthropist and advocate for mathematics education. 

The fellowship recipients were selected based on their dedication and service to mathematics education, their work as ambassadors of mathematics education, and their mathematics education research and service.

Maria Cruciani supports several summer events for middle and high school students through her undergraduate alma mater. At MSU, she has served as chair of the Undergraduate Mentoring Program in the Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) organization, an outreach chair for the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), and as a fellow in the Future Academic Scholars in Teaching (FAST) program. She is currently a fellow in the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), for which she is the sole recipient in mathematics education of the entire national cohort of awardees. Maria was an active member of the Math Ed Colloquium Committee, is a graduate student mentor in PRIME, and will also mentor students in the Statistics Department in their instructional mentoring program, as well as share her statistics education research there. Maria has a dual major in Mathematics Education as well as Statistics. She commented, “I hope to inspire more graduate students to pursue scholarship in education and contribute to the growth of the emerging field of statistics education within mathematics education.”

Davis taught ninth and tenth grade mathematics for two years before coming to MSU, observing in-accessibility and inequities in secondary and post-secondary mathematics, while reflecting on their own similar experiences. Regarding their current research at MSU, Davis remarked, “As an ambassador of mathematics education, my focus over the last two years has been on the ways in which the epistemology and pedagogy of mathematics can be queered, a practice which I contend can be a tool to help deconstruct the white heteronormative values inherent to western ideas of mathematics.” Davis has several presentations and publications promoting this ambassadorship, and wants to extend this work beyond the undergraduate mathematics education venue to the larger, general higher education conferences. Davis shared, “The Zweng Award would grant me the opportunity to travel to these events and continue sharing my excitement, experiences, and discoveries as they relate to gender and queerness in mathematics education.” They continued,  “I also intend to more seriously explore how race, ability, and class create intersectional marginalization within my consideration of gender and sexuality; this will require additional research and discussion which the Zweng Award would allow through its compensation for my time spent thinking critically about this area.” Davis also was a co-leader of PRIME Time, a weekly meeting to acclimate first-year math ed doctoral students to the program and MSU, and leads the PRIME social events.

Sadrack Luden Pagiling joined MSU last year after teaching undergraduate mathematics education courses at the university level in Indonesia for several years. During that time, he also led workshops and learning communities for middle school teachers and principals. Sadrack additionally co-led multiple workshops on digital tools in the classroom for local mathematics teachers. During his first year at MSU, Sadrack presented a paper at the 2025 Michigan AMTE conference, titled Decolonizing Indonesian Middle School Mathematics Curriculum. He also co-authored a paper on inclusive primary mathematics instruction. Sadrack currently serves as a mentor for a first-year mathematics education doctoral student. Sadrack plans to “develop an innovative assessment instrument to gauge pre-service teachers’ knowledge of differentiated instruction”, and share his findings through professional development, such as leading workshops on differentiated mathematics instruction for K-12 and university educators. The Zweng Award will allow Sadrack to continue disseminating his work at state and national conferences. Sadrack commented, “These planned activities will help me keep bridging theory and practice and ensure every student and teacher reaches their fullest potential in mathematics.”

The contributions of Maria, Davis, and Sadrack reflect a commitment to advancing mathematics education and supporting diverse learning communities. PRIME looks forward to witnessing their continued impact in the field. 

As the recipients embark on their respective projects, the legacy of Dr. Marilyn Zweng continues to inspire the next generation of mathematics educators at MSU and beyond. Congratulations, Maria, Davis, and Sadrack!