Recent Paly graduate Lynnelle Ye won a gold medal at the China Girls Mathematical Olympiad, the Bay Area-based Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), which sponsors the team, announced this week. Ye's team also earned an overall second-place finish in the competition, which was held in Shijiazhuang, China.

One hundred and ninety girls from 10 countries competed in this year's event, which consists of eight complex math problems worked on individually over a two-day span.

Ye, who will be a freshman at Stanford University in the fall, also tutored 8- to 12-year-old students in mathematics during her time in China, which she wrote about in a travel blog, calling the experience working with children the most rewarding part of her adventure.

"I feel extremely lucky to have gotten the chance to meet these kids. If we do nothing else the entire trip, this opportunity has already made the whole thing worthwhile," she wrote.

Earlier this year, Ye won fourth place in the national Intel Science Talent Search and second in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. She was also a medal-winning member of the U.S. team at the 2008 China Girls Mathematical Olympiad.

"It's hard to fully appreciate the amazing amount of talent and incredible amount of hard work it takes for these young ladies, spending their summer vacation, day in, day out on math," MSRI Associate Director Dave Auckly said.

"This year the team did better than ever before, coming in second only to a team from China," he added. "You'll see these young women doing great things in the future."

Ye and her local teammates are returning to the Bay Area tomorrow morning (Aug. 17).