May 29 |

At the age of 18, Luis Ronaldo Chávez Escamilla is one of the three young people in the delegation that will represent El Salvador at the International Chemistry Olympiad.

The 55th edition of the international competition will take place from July 16 to 25 in Zurich, Switzerland.

“For me it is one of the most important things in my life. I see it not only as an academic achievement, but as a life experience. They have been shaping me as a person and have helped me discover what I am passionate about and what I want for my future,” she said.

He added that around 84 countries will participate in the Olympics, with approximately three to four representatives per country. There will be an average of 300 contestants in total.

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This represents a challenge for the young man, who since he applied for the competition has dedicated himself to preparing for it. Luis is part of the Jóvenes Talento program, where he receives “training”, as he calls the classes. At home he also spends time solving math problems.

“It is the most difficult and needs many months of preparation, but this year, as I have already finished high school, I have dedicated myself to prepare for this; it is quite demanding,” he said.

His participation in the Olympics is part of his academic record. Luis, who since he was a child was very diligent in his studies, has competed in three more Olympiads, two of which are international and one national.

“Since I was a child I liked mathematics very much, but I had never discovered my passion as such, until fifth grade, when my dad came with the newspaper. Before, the National Math Olympiad was published in the newspaper and people who wanted to participate in the program had to solve certain problems and exams,” he told “Diario El Salvador”.

When he was 12 years old, his father came with the newspaper and proposed it to him as a challenge. With some trepidation she took the exams. “I passed the first stage and that’s when it caught my attention even more. I passed the second stage and qualified. That’s when I realized that I really had talent in the area of numbers,” he added.

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In seventh grade, the young man took the exams for the Salvadoran Chemistry Olympiad (OSQ) for the first time. After his participation, he was able to enter the chemistry group in the Jóvenes Talento program.

“From seventh grade onwards, they allow participation in certain Olympic groups in each area of science. I was always interested in chemistry. My first class in the program was chemistry. In that group there are three levels: elementary, intermediate and advanced. Over the years I have moved up through the levels. Now I am in the advanced level, which is the highest level. Being part of these groups gives you the opportunity to take selective exams of all the classmates classified to participate in these international olympiads,” he said.

In 2021 and 2022 he had the opportunity to participate in the Salvadoran Olympiad and the Ibero-American Chemistry Olympiad. Although everything was virtual, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he won two bronze medals. A third silver medal was obtained by participating in the World Applied Chemistry Olympiad (WAChO), organized by the Indonesian scientific society.

According to the young man, he participated in the last Olympiad with a research project: “I won my silver medal with the sustainable chemistry project, which is the generation of electricity from wastewater,” he said.

In 2022, Luis won a half scholarship to study at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, a prestigious study center in Mexico, after obtaining a high score in the academic aptitude test.

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