‘She just has a brain for math’

When Newport Heights Elementary School Principal Kurt Suhr called out Julia Barney’s name for a math award Friday morning, it was met with the collective sigh of hundreds of unsurprised students.

Julia Barney winning a math award? Duh.

Just a year earlier, the 12-year-old was reciting the Pi sequence out to 100 places for the school talent show. When asked if they’d seen Julia receive a student award before, nearly everyone raised his or her hand.

Hate to tell her fellow students, but they’ll probably just have to get used to it.

“We have a designated math time in class, and a lot of times my friends will come up to me and ask me ‘How do I do this?’” the soft-spoken sixth-grader said.

Not long from now, it could be high school students asking her the same questions. While students Julia’s age are going to begin learning algebra next year in middle school, she’ll be “dabbling in trigonometry,” Suhr said. Many students don’t tackle trigonometry until they’re a junior in high school.

“This young lady has an unbelievably brilliant mind,” Suhr said. “She’s an extraordinary mathematician beyond anything I’ve ever seen before.”

Students in California are taught math through “libraries,” or specific curricula assigned for each grade level, such as pre-algebra in seventh grade and algebra II in eighth grade.

Julia soared through an unprecedented five libraries this school year, Suhr said. She’s already completed pre-algebra, algebra II and geometry.

All her life, Julia’s had a thing for numbers. Her mom said Julia just sees them in her head. Principal Suhr equated her to John Nash, the renowned mathematician portrayed by Russell Crowe in “A Beautiful Mind.”

It could be she’s the product of good genes and a passion to learn. Julia’s dad is an inventor.

His latest invention? Creating an algorithm that rates and values patents. Julia’s mom, Colleen, was also a math whiz in school.

For a persuasive essay Julia had to write for class last year, she argued why the school week should be extended to six days.

“She just has a brain for math,” Colleen said. “It’s scary to me sometimes.”

Next year, Julia will move on to Ensign Intermediate School.

She’ll split her time among three eighth grade classes and three seventh grade.

Suhr said Newport Heights Elementary, Ensign and Newport Harbor High School have all been collaborating to continue challenging Julia with new math tests and books, so her thirst for math isn’t stifled by having to sit through a class where she knows everything.

Eventually, her mom said, Julia might skip a grade.

She said Julia, who also loves science, wants to become a doctor and work in medical research.

If she continues on her meteoric rise in mathematics, maybe soon everyone will be sighing unsurprised for Julia Barney’s latest award.