Twenty years · 2006–2026

Challenging brilliant minds since 2006

A classroom at Concordia University, Irvine. Dr. Li stands at the front pointing at a projected slide headed Problem Solving is Interesting Math, with students at tables watching.

Ardent started as the Orange County Math Olympiad Summer Camp, on the campus of Concordia University, Irvine. 2006.

Students crowded together indoors, holding up geometric constructions built from coloured rods and connectors.

In the early years, I taught every student myself.

You may have known us as Avid Academy for Gifted Youth. The name changed; the classes did not.

These are the people who were there. If you were one of them, the wall is yours.

Student, parent, instructor, or staff — under either name? Add your message to the wall.

Add my message

Twenty years in photographs →