27/08/2020

During the pandemic, the TIM-OBMEP Institute scholarship helps university students.

Medalhistas da OBMEP. Foto: Instituto TIM

With the challenges of distance learning imposed by the new coronavirus pandemic, the TIM-OBMEP Institute Scholarship made an even greater difference in the lives of the 50 university students selected for the program. The monthly stipend of R$ 1,200 helps students, most of whom are taking online classes, to get through the semester with more support. Created in 2015 in partnership with IMPA and the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP), the TIM-OBMEP Institute Scholarship is intended for gold, silver, or bronze medalists from the competition who have been admitted to public universities. The goal is to offer financial support to talented students from low-income families so that they can attend university.

“The young people selected for the TIM-OBMEP Institute Scholarship receive even more important support during this pandemic and will be able to continue their studies even remotely. It is a differentiating factor that can transform lives, opening up new possibilities,” highlights Mario Girasole, president of the TIM Institute.

This year, more than 700 young people from the fields of astronomy, biology, computer science, economics, engineering, statistics, physics, mathematics, medicine, and chemistry applied for the TIM-OBMEP Institute Scholarship. The selection criteria were performance on the National High School Exam (ENEM), per capita family income, and the distance between the university and their place of residence.

Alex Victor Bispo da Silva, gold medalist in the last edition of OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), is saving his scholarship money to buy a computer and a printer, tools that will make it easier to keep up with his studies during the period of remote classes. “This scholarship from the TIM Institute will also help me participate in conferences in my field and buy books, which tend to be expensive. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to stay in the course. This scholarship was an incentive for me to dedicate myself even more to higher education,” the mathematics student from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) told the Olinda Hoje Blog .

Originally from Catanduvas, Paraná, Karina Moreira Lopes was one of the students selected for the aid. Since the city where she grew up doesn't have public universities, the TIM-OBMEP Institute Scholarship is essential for her to be able to support herself in Toledo (PR), where she is studying Chemical Engineering at the State University of Western Paraná (Unioeste). "If it weren't for the TIM Institute scholarship, I wouldn't be able to support myself in the city where I live and I wouldn't be able to study," she stated.