At the OBMEP awards ceremony, Viana highlights the students' dedication.

Isabela ao lado dos pais: na segunda medalha da OBMEP, mais alegria e confiança

Upon receiving her second medal at the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools), 13-year-old student Isabela Silva dos Santos once again felt the joy of achievement, but not the disbelief she experienced during her first medal in the country's largest student competition. She knows that with dedication, mathematics is right there, within reach.

"The first time, I couldn't even believe it… Me?! My name on the list of award winners?!", she said during the presentation of the silver and bronze medals won in the 2018 OBMEP by students from municipal and federal schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Read also: IMPA-SBM Journalism Award 2019 opens for entries
Paulo Ney's book becomes a transformative story in Berkeley.
The mathematics without borders of the Senegalese Khadim War

In addition to Isabela, another 218 students from 45 municipal and federal schools received award certificates and medals at a ceremony held on Monday afternoon (10) in the auditorium of Colégio Pedro II – Campus São Cristóvão II, in the north of Rio. At the event, 15 teachers and seven schools were also honored, awarded in the OBMEP 2018 for the performance of their students in the competition. The ceremony for state network institutions will be this Tuesday at the same location.

Estudantes e professores premiados do Colégio da Aplicação da UFRJ

Held since 2005 by IMPA and promoted with resources from the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC) and the Ministry of Education (MEC), and with the support of the SBM (Brazilian Mathematical Society), the competition is aimed at students from the 6th grade of elementary school to the 3rd year of high school. The 14th edition, last year, brought together students from more than 54,000 public and private schools. Approximately 7,500 students won gold, silver, and bronze medals.

In his speech during the ceremony, the Director-General of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, observed that, in OBMEP, we compete with ourselves, trying to overcome our limitations, and that nothing represents perseverance better than a medal achieved in a competition with 18.2 million participants from all over the country.

In addition to being an organizer of OBMEP, Viana mentioned that this year he debuted in the Olympiad playing a new role: father of a participant. His son, a 6th-grade student at a federal public school, took the test for the first time this year and was approved for the second phase of the competition, to be held on September 28th.

“I’ve never seen him so euphoric as when he arrived saying he had been approved. This enthusiasm that OBMEP carries is something I hadn’t yet experienced directly, and it added to the charm that I think this Olympiad has. In fact, any activity that encourages our young people to want to go further, to overcome their challenges, is important. And now is the moment when we recognize that,” said Viana, who concluded his speech with thanks to the teachers, parents, and students.

Professora premiada Dayse Antunes ao lado de Viana e do professor Miguel Vilarde 

During the ceremony, the director-general of the São Cristóvão II Campus of Pedro II, Bernardino Paiva Matos, highlighted the importance of the teacher's work, as did the coordinator of Basic Education of the Municipal Education Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro, Isaura Barreto, who, in her speech, emphasized the importance of a more generous approach to Mathematics. She observed that "OBMEP is a project of great relevance" to this ongoing change.

Just ask Adriana Azevedo de Castro Borba, one of the award-winning teachers at the 2018 OBMEP. She, who has followed the Olympiad since its first edition in 2005, considers the competition a great incentive for students. "The OBMEP came to show how challenging and fun mathematics is. And also so that students can see that mathematics is not just numbers," she observed, who teaches at the Ary Barroso Municipal School in Cordovil, in the northern zone of Rio.

One of the bronze medal winners, Yuri Cauã Faustino de Oliveira, 16 years old, a first-year high school student at Colégio Pedro II Unidade Humaitá II, knows this well. He already liked mathematics when he participated in the OBMEP for the first time, but he said that the test is an additional incentive. “I especially like the more difficult questions. I feel even more challenged.”

Cerimônia de premiação da OBMEP foi realizada no Colégio Pedro II 

At the end of the ceremony, Isabela wanted to capture the moment with her parents, Paula, the pedagogical director of the Adlay Stevenson Municipal School, and Alexandre, a public servant. They were equally happy with their daughter's success and spoke about the encouragement given at home. “We support her. And we really support her! On Saturdays, we leave Irajá, in the north zone, and go to UniRio, in the south zone, so she can attend the PIC classes. It's four hours there, sitting, waiting for the class to end,” jokes the mother, who praises the Junior Scientific Initiation Program (PIC), intended for OBMEP award winners.

It's likely that this unusual routine will repeat itself in 2020. Isabela has been approved for the second phase of the 2019 OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad). If she wins another medal, the Silva dos Santos family already has a guaranteed schedule for Saturdays next year.