21/11/2022

OBMEP medalist comes from a family of farmers.

The daughter of farmers, 15-year-old student Amanda Pagel Blank traveled by plane for the first time earlier this month to receive her first gold medal, won at the 15th edition of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools). The awards ceremony took place on November 7th in Salvador, Bahia.

Anxiously, the student from the Francisco Fromming municipal school in São Lourenço do Sul (RS) is still waiting to receive her second yellow medal from the 2021 Olympics, the award ceremony for which has not yet taken place. In total, the young woman has accumulated three medals: one silver (2018) and two gold (2019 and 2021).

Amanda says she learned about OBMEP at school, when she was a sixth-grade student, and on her own she sought information about the benefits the olympiad offers. "I researched everything on my own and went deep into it."

A resident of a city of 43,000 inhabitants, where agriculture accounts for 60% of the municipality's GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the student says that her family lives off soybean farming. It is from her parents that she receives the main encouragement for her studies.

“My parents always tell me to focus on my studies. They never made me drop out of school or anything like that to help, but when I have some free time, I like to help because I want to repay everything they do for me,” she said.

Amanda also commented on the advantages and disadvantages of studying in the countryside. “My flight from Pelotas to São Paulo was faster than the time I spend on the bus to school, for example. Studying in the countryside does have some drawbacks, but in terms of experience, it's fine. I can study quietly in my own space. Then, if I want a break, I go there, take care of my chickens, see the cows, go for a walk in the fields.”

The medalist was accompanied by her mother and a cousin to Salvador – the family's first airplane trip.