#33 Veselin Jungic - Your heart and passion are the key to inspiring student success

Futures Voices

Meet the multi-award winning mathematician that ran 17 marathons and worked as a chef to support his family, while completing his Ph.D as a refugee in Canada. Veselin Jungić, 'Veso' as he is known to his friends, is a teaching professor at Simon Fraser University with more than forty years of experience. Prof. Jungic’s story is one of inspiration, struggle, hard work and servant leadership.

He was born in Banja Luka but draws his roots from the beautiful village of Budimlić Japra in Krajina where he often escapes in his mind to fond memories of his childhood and grandparents. His career and life philosophy were shaped by the big names of Bosnian/Herzegovinian mathematics such as Mahmut Bajraktarevic, Kalmi Finci, Dusan Vujakovic, Fikret Vajzovic, Radomir Zivkovic and Naza Tanovic-Miller & Harry Miller and Veselin Peric.

His mission to promote the importance of mathematics in everyday life resulted with the development of the Math Catcher Outreach Program, tackling the stigma surrounding mathematics among Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth through school visits, workshops, summer camps, tutoring and creation of learning resources in various First Nation languages. More than 25,000 students have been inspired by Prof. Jungic and his team to date. He has also created four animated films about the adventures of Math girl, and from 2010-2016 he co-wrote eight stories about Small Number, an Aboriginal boy who sees and discovers mathematics everywhere.

Among the numerous awards, Prof. Jungic was recognised as the 3M National Teaching Fellow in 2015 and Adrien Pouliot Award in 2020 for his outstanding contributions to mathematics education in Canada.

"Our hearts and passion can make up for our lack of resources in teaching. A good teacher always finds a way to transfer their passion towards a topic to their students. We need to be creative and continue learning ourselves. The world around us is changing rapidly and we no longer act as sources of information, we facilitate learning. Love your students, respect them, give them space, support them in the best way you can. Share your own life story and most importantly don’t forget that you are a role model. The question remains what sort of role model do you want to be and how will you shape future leaders?", says Prof. Jungic.