19/12/2022

OBMEP medalist inspires students from Pelotas (RS)

A bronze medal won in 2007, at the Tuesdays edition of OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), opened doors for young Cloé Schiavon Pich, then in the 9th grade of elementary school. The student from the Antonio Ronna Municipal School was the first from the municipal school system of Pelotas (RS) to be awarded a prize in the competition. This year, Cloé recorded a video about her journey to encourage students in the city to participate in the Olympiad. The former OBMEP medalist became a process engineer at Michelin.

“I studied a lot because I was trying to get into CEFET [Federal Center for Technological Education of Pelotas] and I knew I could rely on math to raise my grade, because I’ve always had an aptitude for it. So I was studying hard when I took the OBMEP for the first time,” the young woman reported.

The dedication paid off. With the bronze medal, the student was invited to participate in the Junior Scientific Initiation Program (PIC), which offers advanced math classes and a R$100 scholarship from CNPq.

“I found myself in the scientific initiation program. It was my first contact with the professional world. It was an environment where there was an exchange of ideas and, at the same time, it was extremely rewarding. OBMEP opened my mind to various opportunities! It was through the PIC scholarship that I understood that I could work with this, that it was possible to continue studying,” the student recalled.

During her PIC classes, Cloé fell in love with the idea of pursuing an academic career, where she could work with science and mathematics. At the same time, she was accepted into CEFET, where she completed a technical course in Electrotechnics and continued participating in OBMEP. Winning two consecutive honorable mentions in the Wednesdays and Thursdays editions of the Olympiad further validated her choice of mathematics.

The next step was the long-awaited acceptance into the Chemical Engineering program at IFSul (Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Southern Rio Grande do Sul). As soon as she entered university, Cloé considered the possibility of doing an exchange program and, as a result, completed half of her degree in France and half in Brazil. The medalist works at Michelin in France.

“When you study at a public school in the countryside, you sometimes have little idea of how much education can change your life. OBMEP gave me the opportunity to understand that,” she commented.

With the goal of motivating other students to dedicate themselves and possibly experience the transformative potential of the Olympiad, Cloé recorded a video telling her story, at the invitation of Professor Luiz Lemos Júnior, who teaches in the municipal school system of Pelotas. Since 2010, he has been working to encourage students.

This year, the teacher organized a special class to prepare for the second phase of the 17th OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) with all the qualified students in the municipality and managed to contact Cloé. "It was great to get her to participate, because it's noticeable that the students left the class more enthusiastic about taking the test. It's important that they have role models like her, someone who came from the same place as them and went so far," commented the teacher.

: Professor Luiz Lemos Júnior com alunos premiados com menção honrosa

: Professor Luiz Lemos Júnior em “aulão” preparatório para a segunda fase da OBMEP

: Cloé Schiavon Pich é engenheira na Michelin na França