13/01/2023

Student from Cipotânea (MG) wins the city's first gold medal.

Mateus Pereira dos Santos, a 15-year-old resident of Cipotânea, a municipality in Minas Gerais with 7,000 inhabitants, not only won his first gold medal, but also the first yellow jersey in the history of the city, located 239 km from Belo Horizonte, the state capital. The achievement came in the 17th edition of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), whose list of winners was released on December 20th of last year.

A student at the José Dias Pedrosa State School, the teenager began participating in the science competition in 2019, when he was still in the 6th grade of elementary school. At that time, he was awarded a bronze medal. In 2021, he received the silver medal. The student, who also has 12 other awards from knowledge olympiads, says he was inspired by his older brother – also a medalist.

“It was in the 6th grade that I started participating in olympiads, with OBMEP. I saw my older brother taking the tests. He was an inspiration to me, because when we see someone doing something interesting, we want to do it too. Furthermore, I knew that the OBMEP awards could help us a lot in the future, that it brought benefits. This gold medal is a huge achievement for a student from a public school in a small town,” he emphasized.

Mateus also said that he didn't expect such a positive result. “I knew I had done well on the test, I thought I would win a medal, but I didn't expect to place so well. It was a huge joy! The school put up a banner in my honor, they encouraged me to continue,” he recalled.

In an interview with Radio Roquette-Pinto, based in Rio de Janeiro, the deputy director of IMPA and general coordinator of OBMEP, Claudio Landim, highlighted the student's performance.

“At level two, which includes 8th and 9th grade students, we have a student from Cipotânea, a small town in Minas Gerais, who took first place ahead of students from the Military College and Federal Institutes, which shows that this test is capable of detecting talented students. And then, it's no use identifying students and leaving them to their own devices. So, all medalists receive a CNPq scholarship to participate in the Scientific Initiation Program so that they can learn mathematics that will try to develop this talent, in addition to encouraging students to continue their studies.”

Luciana Guimarães, Mateus's math teacher since the 6th grade, said that the student stood out at school.

"He was always an exemplary student, very dedicated to his studies and with wonderful behavior. He participated in everything the school offered and obtained excellent results. He stood out in the classroom, not only for his test scores, but also for his politeness and willingness to help classmates who were struggling," she said proudly.

Mateus was one of the students invited to the 7th Hilbert Hotel Meeting (EHH), which took place last year in Florianópolis. Promoted by IMPA, through OBMEP, the meeting brings together nearly 200 students from the 6th grade of elementary school to the 3rd year of high school with the best performance in the PIC. For four days, the students participate in activities, classes, and challenges.

Encontro do Hotel de Hilbert reuniu 200 alunos em Florianópolis (SC)

"OBMEP helped me discover that I have a future."

Thanks to the awards, Mateus gained access to the PIC (Junior Scientific Initiation Program) , which offers in-depth math classes and a monthly stipend of R$100 from CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development). Mateus says that the group meetings were important for progressing in his studies.

“I think OBMEP was one of the most important things that happened in my life. I already had a liking for the subject, but the Olympiad helped me to understand mathematics in a different way than it was presented in school. In high school, we try to memorize things and don't understand how things work. In PIC, they teach us to ask why things are the way they are and to truly understand mathematics.”

To reinforce his studies, Matheus watched free video lessons with problem-solving exercises from the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools); he used material provided by the OBMEP website itself and took tests from previous editions.

The student also emphasized the importance of competition for the future of young people, especially those who live in rural areas.

“OBMEP helped me discover that I have a future. It plays an important role, since many times students from the interior remain hidden, because in the capitals everything is easier, students have more support and infrastructure. The interior has many talents who cannot achieve as much because they don't have the same opportunities.”