Students from Southern Pará’s Adventist Education system achieved a historic result with two national runner-up titles at the Brazilian Astronomy and Astronautics Olympiad (OBA).
The honors, earned by students of Adventist College of Marabá, came in both the elementary and high school categories, strengthening the school’s standing as a leading center for science education in northern Brazil.
The event brought together more than 70 teams from across the country. Professor Naiane Santana de Oliveira Sousa, who oversees Natural Sciences and Physics, said the outcome reflected sustained preparation.
“We started with a selection process in May, choosing the students who achieved the best results in Elementary and High School. Since then, we have gone through several stages of testing and building the rocket bases. It was a challenging process, with many trials and errors, but also a lot of learning until we arrived in Barra do Piraí,” she said.
Ninth-grade student Joana Lara Lima Carvalho described the experience as transformative. and full of learning.
“There were more than 70 teams in Rio, and at first I was very anxious about competing with so many prepared people. But when I got there, I realized there was no reason to be nervous. It was an incredible experience. I made friends, we exchanged ideas, and we even learned new strategies for next year. It was more of a learning experience than a competition,” she said.
According to Robson Castro, general director of Adventist Education for Southern Pará, the performance confirms the academic progress driven by the network’s new “Olympics” project.
"We launched the Olympics project at the beginning of this year to prepare our students for national competitions, such as the OBA and OBMEP. Schools that invest in this type of initiative raise the performance of all students, and the results are already showing. We won two national runner-up titles, a historic milestone for Southern Pará and for the entire Adventist network. This shows the talent of our students and the commitment of the teachers. And this is just the beginning," Castro said.
The original article was published on the South American Division Portuguese news site.
