23/02/2024

From medalist to PIC professor: Deise Lava teaches in Rio de Janeiro.

Deise Lava, now a teacher at the Roberto Simonsen municipal school in Bangu, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro, was 16 years old when the first edition of OBMEP was launched in 2005. At the time a first-year high school student, she did not participate in the science competition, which years later would transform her life.

The following year, another opportunity was missed. It wasn't until 2007, in her third year of high school, that she finally took the exam.

“I participated without really knowing what it was. I took the test needing to finish at a certain time to be able to catch a bus and go home. I won a bronze medal. It was my first and only OBMEP, and even so, it offered me great opportunities,” Deise recalled.

Having been accepted into the mathematics program at the State University of Western Paraná (Unioeste), the teacher recounts that during the January holidays, the award led to three meetings with medalists.

“Those were my first trips. On one of them, I attended a lecture with my future Calculus 1 professor in college. I also participated in a math week and even went to receive a medal in Curitiba,” she recalled.

In college, Deise's relationship with OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) deepened. A professor, who also taught in the PIC (Scientific Initiation Program), was responsible for guiding her towards the PICME (Scientific Initiation and Master's Program). “With this scholarship I supported myself until the end of my undergraduate studies. Later, I also obtained a PICME scholarship for a master's degree in mathematics at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), which is why I moved from Paraná to Rio de Janeiro.”

In Rio de Janeiro, the teacher taught at Colégio Pedro II and later passed the public service exam for the municipal education system. In 2017, she joined the "OBMEP na Escola" program. Today, Deise is one of the teachers in the program that transformed her life – the PIC.

“I work at a school in Bangu [a neighborhood in the west zone of Rio], where most students have never left the city, many have never been to the south zone, and they don't know other realities. I like to tell my story, especially about the scholarships, because I know it makes a huge difference in their lives. Today, I have four scholarship students in the PIC program, but the school has registered about 20 students as auditors, and this initiative has sparked the desire of other students to participate. They know they have the opportunity to be awarded a scholarship by the end of high school.”

The teacher, who dreams of a national award for her students, saw her student Sandro Sampaio win a regional bronze medal and an honorable mention last year.

“I accompany my students to the OBMEP exams and take them to the second phase. We have already achieved several honorable mentions, but this regional bronze medal in the 18th edition is the first for one of my students, and I am very proud.”

Sandro is a first-year high school student. He began attending PIC classes as an auditor after his sister received an honorable mention in 2022 and joined the program. The student emphasizes that PIC was fundamental in improving his mathematical thinking.

“The class greatly improved my reasoning. Before, I thought in a very restricted way, and whenever I didn't have an answer right away, I thought about giving up. Maybe that's why when I first passed to the second phase of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), I didn't even get an honorable mention. However, after taking the course, I passed to the second phase again, and this time I got an honorable mention and also a medal. This achievement excited me a lot, and now I study even harder.”

For 2024, student and teacher will continue their pursuit of yet another achievement: the national medal.

“My dream is that they go on to public universities and choose a profession. That’s the best reward for a teacher,” Deise concluded.