ENGLEWOOD — Every year as sure a summer vacation, 9NEWS does a story at St. Mary's Academy. The reason is for the last four years, teacher Iswari Natarajan has had every student take the AP Calculus test and get a perfect score.
"Both for my students, for myself, I want to keep the focus on, did we learn Calculus?" Natarajan said.
Katherine Crise and Ali Leen are two of the 15 students at this all-girls school who got perfect scores of fives on their Advanced Placement tests this year.
"She works so hard with getting us really prepared for the test. I think we owe it to her really to get those fives," Leen said.
Crise thought she was going to be the one to end the perfect streak.
"No, I was nervous, yeah," Crise said. "Calc BC was so hard."
Maybe the real motivator was the idea of appearing on 9NEWS again.
"This is my third time actually doing this," Crise said.
She means it's her third time on TV.
"When a student makes a mistake, we are like, well, you are going to be on 9NEWS with that," Natarajan said.
But, going into this year, there is a major change.
"I'm super excited to serve in the role of high school principal," Natarajan said.
She did such a good job teaching Calculus, Academy President Bill Barrett wanted to her run the whole high school.
"The streak is wonderful, but that's not the most important thing," Barrett said. "As we think about St. Mary's Academy, our vision is to inspire leaders, to act with integrity, seek justice, build community, and change the world."
Natarajan's students believe she is ready for the task.
"I think she's gonna really bring her spirit that she brings in Calculus to the entire school and I think a lot of people will benefit from that," Leen said.
Crise can't really explain what makes Natarajan so successful at teaching Calculus.
"She has some kind of freaky magic," Crise said. "I don't know what it is."
Even while serving as principal, Natarajan will still be teaching Calculus. She expects to continue the streak -- and the coverage on 9NEWS.
"I love seeing you and I hope that I will see you again," Natarajan said.
