12/06/2023

OBMEP's biggest national award is highlighted in the press.

The biggest national award ceremony of the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP) was featured in media outlets such as Jornal Nacional , Folha de S. Paulo , O Globo , GloboNews, and TV Brasil . Local media outlets like Agência Catarinense de Notícias , NDTV (an affiliate of Record TV), and NSC Total also reported on the ceremony. The event took place in Florianópolis (SC), on June 5th, and awarded gold medals to the top-performing students in the 16th and 17th editions of the competition.

The Jornal Nacional told the story of two award-winning medalists who spoke about their journeys to achieving their long-awaited gold medals. Izian Duarte, a student from Ceará, said he studied four hours a day to win the medal. Lucas Machado, a student from Minas Gerais, highlighted that to win awards in both editions of the Olympiad, he needed to review old material. The report also aired on GloboNews.

In Folha, the event was featured in Folhinha, a section of the newspaper dedicated to news about the children's world. The publication also publishes weekly logic challenges from the OBMEP Portal, in partnership with IMPA.

The article described the emotion of some of the more than one thousand medalists. Many flew for the first time to receive the highest award from OBMEP. This is the case of Pedro Ygor, 13 years old, a resident of Tamandaré (PE).

"I came in good spirits, I thought it was going to be worse. Because it's a plane, right? People told me not to look at the ground or I would get sick. But I sat by the window, and I even took pictures."

Gabriel AMS, a 16-year-old student from Tocantins, highlighted the importance of OBMEP for his academic future.

"The competition is very worthwhile; it's a unique experience, not only because of the trip but also because it opens up many opportunities. For example, when a university sees that you already have a history of awards, or because of the scientific initiation scholarships that are given to OBMEP medalists."

In an article published on the 5th, O Globo told the story of twin sisters Romana and Sofia Galvão, 19 years old, from Rio Grande do Norte. They accumulated nine medals and three honorable mentions over the six consecutive years they participated in the competition.

“We started participating in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) in the sixth grade of elementary school and continued until the third year of high school. Every year, we won bronze, silver, or gold medals. And when it wasn't a medal, it was an honorable mention. The Olympiad made us fall in love with mathematics, and today we dream of becoming engineers,” Sofia said.

On the same day, the newspaper O Globo published a second article reporting that the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, guaranteed support for IMPA Tech – the institute's new undergraduate course.

"The Ministry of Education will financially support the creation of the IMPA undergraduate course to encourage young people in this country. We will strive to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to pursue higher education. Education is the only path the country has to grow and develop."

The father of a medalist, economist Ricardo Amorim, who was the presenter of the GloboNews program Manhattan Connection, attended the ceremony in Florianópolis. On LinkedIn , he posted a video about OBMEP and the historic awarding of a thousand students from all over the country.

The topic also generated coverage on Rádio Nacional , the websites of the Ministry of Science , Technology and Innovation , and the Ministry of Education , among others.

About OBMEP

Created and organized by IMPA, with support from SBM (Brazilian Mathematical Society), the competition is promoted with resources from the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). Aimed at students from the 6th grade of elementary school to the 3rd year of high school, OBMEP encourages the study of mathematics and identifies young talents in the discipline. Other objectives of the initiative are to promote social inclusion through the dissemination of knowledge and to contribute to improving the quality of basic education, allowing more Brazilian students to access quality teaching materials.