An Espirito Santo student is awarded in an international event in Astrophysics

Photo: Publicity / The Ponte Institute

An area where few people risk. Jordana Lourenço Santos, a 17-year-old student from Espírito Santo, has faced the challenge of the math world and has already achieved excellent results.

Awarded in the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition (IAAC), an international event aimed at high school and university students and dedicated to topics including astronomy and astrophysics.

The student has been a member of the Instituto Ponte (IP) since 2019 and is currently in the second year of the technical course in Computer Science for the Internet, which is integrated into the high school of Ifes da Serra.

In the three stages of the competition, Jordana achieved good results among 8,500 participants. In the end, the student was among the top 15% in the world in her level, and took the bronze medal. Of the 30 questions, Jordana got the right half.

According to her, to achieve the result, it was also necessary to take part in the English language course offered by the Ponte Institute.

This year, more than 8000 students from 67 countries took part in the competition. The IAAC was held in an online format and organized by the Edu.Harbor Association. Most of the technical team is based in Heidelberg, Germany.

The student, who lives in the Jardim da Penha neighborhood of Vitoria, said she learned about the IAAC event through a posting by a colleague online and that she decided to participate at the last minute.

Photo: Publicity / The Ponte Institute

“I found out about the Olympics online,” he said. “It’s a bit late. I’ve never seen it before, but decided to participate. It wasn’t the first time.”

According to her, the last stage of the competition was the most challenging, since she did not have enough time to solve 30 questions.

“The last stage was more difficult, because it was one minute per question. I had to really know it. In the other stages, there are more rhetorical questions in English.”

The young woman’s participation in the Olympiad in the field of astronomy and astrophysics began in 2016, when she participated for the first time in the Brazilian Olympiad in Astronomy (OBA). On that occasion, she won a silver medal. From 2018 onwards, it reached gold in the following years.

Jordana said she spends almost an entire day studying IT for the Internet. At night, no rest. She is also dedicated to training.

Other Olympics

The International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition (IAAC) was not Jordana’s first Olympiad. In 2019, he won a bronze medal in the Brazilian Public Schools Mathematics Olympiad (OBMEP).

The student also participated in purple comet (Purple comet). The international competition consisted of teams of six people. According to Jordana, her group took first place in the Brazilian ranking. Among other countries, they were ranked 174th.

This month, the young woman entered the Mandacar Olympics. Fifty people were chosen from all over Brazil, among them: Jordana. Now the student is waiting for the final result. In the first stage, she was in the 21st place.

Jordana said that she is satisfied with being from Espiritu Santo and after participating in an international event, achieving one of the highest scores among the 8,500 participants.

He revealed, “I thought it was cool. I was so happy. And the best part is being Espiritu Santo. I am very proud to say that I am from here and that I studied in a public school.”

Jordana offers advice for those who love the area. It is necessary to spend many hours studying. It still has some considerations.

She explained, “I recommend studying more astronomy. If you understand astronomy well, you can develop the rest. The difficulty for us Brazilians is English, because the test must be solved entirely in English.”

According to the founder and president of the Ponte Institute, Bartera Almeida, the achievement proves that talented young people can change the course of their lives.

Jordana’s excellent result is proof of that. We are certain that victories like this will help her transform her life and the lives of her family, even reflecting the worrying expectations of entities such as the recognized Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to the foundation, it could take The poorest people are up to nine generations to reach the average income in Brazil. And we want to change this scenario. Through transformative education, we believe that young people like Jordana will be able to rise socially in much fewer generations,” he said.