First female student of "people who sleep sitting up" wins international award

Nguyen La Vi Na and the team of Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School excellently won the Silver Medal at the TIMO International Mathematical Olympiad. Vi Na is the first Dan Lai student to win an international prize.

The Dan Lai girl left the district to study in the city. The Dan Lai ethnic girl has a rather strange name - Nguyen La Vi Na. "My name was given by my father, a combination of my father's last name Nguyen, my mother's last name La and my grandmother's last name Vi", the 16-year-old girl shyly explained her name. Vi Na was born in Tan Son village - a resettlement village of the Dan Lai people in the border commune of Mon Son, Con Cuong district, Nghe An. The Dan Lai people are also known as "the people who sleep sitting up". This name comes from the special sleeping position of a group of people - considered the ancestors of today's Dan Lai people - on the journey to escape the enemy.

Female student Dan Lai Nguyen La Vi Na (Photo: Hoang Lam).

In the past, the Dan Lai people lived in the core area of ​​Pu Mat National Park, with poverty, backwardness and illiteracy. Thanks to the policies of the Party and the State, the Dan Lai people have gradually been brought out of the deep forest, learned to grow rice, and have access to many support policies, but are still very poor. Dan Lai children who go to school are supported with books and rice, but many families do not value education. Many children try their best to only study until grade 9 and then drop out. Some get married, have children before they grow up, and live a miserable life with the fields and the forests. Vi Na is lucky because her parents especially value education and instill in her a love of letters, hoping that one day their daughter can fly further than the highest mountain in this border region.

Vi Na and her homeroom teacher, also math teacher Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh (Photo: Hoang Lam).

In grade 4, Vi Na began to have a love for mathematics. In grades 5 and 9, the Dan Lai female student was named in the district-level math competition team. With her parents' guidance, Vi Na determined to pass the entrance exam to Nghe An Province Boarding Ethnic High School (located in Vinh City, Nghe An). With 9.35 points in literature, 7.75 points in math and 5 points in English, Vi Na officially went to the city to study. Leaving the village, away from her parents and relatives, starting to live independently, Vi Na was also very disappointed, but in a school where teachers were like parents, friends were like relatives, she gradually adapted to focus on studying. Recognizing the sharp thinking, solid knowledge foundation and high determination of the female student from the border area, math teacher Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh decided to select Vi Na and 13 other students to join the training team to participate in the TIMO International Math Olympiad (math competition in English) in 2023. This is a competition with a wide range of math knowledge, spread across grades 10, 11 and 12. In addition to math knowledge, candidates are required to be fluent in English, while coming from the mountainous area, foreign languages ​​are a limitation of this female student. Not to mention, the qualifying round of the competition coincided with the first semester exam time, so Vi Na and her friends had to make a lot of effort to ensure their core knowledge, review math and improve their foreign languages.

Vi Na (left of teacher) and her team members participating in the TIMO International Mathematical Olympiad (Photo: Hoang Lam).

There was a time when Vi Na felt overwhelmed and wanted to stop, but Ms. Linh, the school board and her parents encouraged her, and she revived her determination, hoping to one day "go to the big sea". The miracle of student Dan Lai "In fact, from the beginning, the goal of the teachers and students participating in the TIMO International Mathematical Olympiad was for them to rub shoulders and test themselves in a large environment, not focusing on achievements", Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh shared. However, beyond the original plan, the team of Nghe An Ethnic Minority High School successively passed the qualifying round and the national competition round to advance straight to the final round of the competition, held in Pattaya city, Thailand last April. While in the qualifying round and the national competition round, the candidates took the test on a bilingual English-Vietnamese test or with Vietnamese subtitles, in the final round, the candidates had to complete the test in English consisting of 30 questions, 120 minutes.

Vi Na and the TIMO Math Olympiad team from Nghe An Ethnic Minority High School at the final round (Photo: Thuy Linh).

"The questions in the test set are divided equally into the areas of logical thinking, arithmetic/algebra, number theory, geometry, combinatorics, and there are also questions related to life. Therefore, in addition to professional knowledge, candidates must have a good command of English and the ability to think and understand practical life to complete the test in the best way. During the test, I felt quite confident because the content had been carefully reviewed by the teacher, but I did not think I could win a medal," Vi Na shared. When the team of Nghe An Ethnic Minority High School was named with 9 Silver medals, including her name, female student Dan Lai burst into joy. At this exam, a member of the team won the Encouragement Prize. This is also a special achievement of Nghe An Ethnic Minority High School in its first participation in this exam. "I am very happy. I want to dedicate this result to my parents - who always encourage and motivate me, to my homeroom teacher Thuy Linh and the school board who believed in me, gave me opportunities and created the best conditions for me and my teammates during the preparation and competition in Thailand.

The first time "going out to sea", Vi Na got to know many math-loving friends from many countries (Photo: Thuy Linh).

In my hometown, there are still many girls who have to drop out of school early, maybe because of family circumstances, or maybe because of their beliefs about marriage and education. That makes me very sad. I hope that they will try to overcome their beliefs and adversity, continue studying, and have a better chance to change their lives in the future. I think if I can do it, they can too," said female student Dan Lai. Ms. Nguyen Thi Kieu Hoa - Principal of Nghe An Ethnic Minority High School - said that when she entered the school, Vi Na was not an outstanding student, and her English test scores were not high. However, she was a student with intelligence, diligence, obedience and especially high determination. "Vi Na is not the first Dan Lai student to leave her village to go to a provincial boarding school, but she is the first Dan Lai student to win an award in an international competition.

Participating in an international competition for the first time, the team from Nghe An Ethnic Minority High School excellently won 9 Silver Medals and 1 Encouragement Prize out of a total of 10 members (Photo: Thuy Linh).

This result is not only a worthy reward for the efforts and endeavors of the students themselves, but also the result of theeducational strategy being implemented by the school's Board of Directors; the enthusiasm, responsibility and dedication of the math teachers and of the head teacher Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh personally," Ms. Kieu Hoa shared. According to the female principal, from the success of the team at the TIMO International Mathematical Olympiad, the school is confident in creating playgrounds and training for students to participate in national and international competitions. In addition to TIMO Math, in the past school year, the school's teams participated and won high prizes at science and technology innovation competitions held in Poland and Korea.

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