YSU STEM High School students return from international olympiad with seven medals and Grand Prix

This year, 214 representatives from seven countries took part in the final stage of the olympiad: Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Armenia, Russia and Romania.

Speaking about the students' achievements on international platforms, YSU STEM High School Director Aram Khachatryan noted that the school's students have been participating in the competition for the third year, with the results becoming increasingly impressive.

"In the first year of participation, we had two participants, who won one gold and one silver medal. The following year, we had five participants, who won one bronze and four silver medals. This year, of the eight participants who reached the final, seven traveled to Bali; unfortunately, one student was unable to join the team. As a result, we have seven participants, seven medals and one Grand Prix. From this perspective, we can say that we are recording incomparably greater progress year by year," he said.

The school director noted with particular pride that 10th-grade students also achieved success, even though they had joined the school's Olympiad Club only six to seven months earlier. One of them won a silver medal, while the other won a bronze medal. According to Khachatryan, the key to success is consistent work.

"Students must have olympiad-style thinking and be familiar with the standards of international olympiads to achieve success," he said.

Seda Marutyan, Head of the Olympiad Club, Doctor of Biological Sciences and Associate Professor at the YSU Chair of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology, explained that the first two stages of the olympiad are held in Armenia in an online test format. Participants who meet the required threshold then travel to Indonesia to take part in the final stage in person.

"We begin the Olympiad Club's sessions in early September and hold at least two meetings a week. When we found out that we had seven participants in the Applied Biology competition, we made the sessions more intensive," Marutyan said, adding that the olympiad values not only theoretical knowledge, but also the ability to properly filter information.

Bronze medalist and 10th-grade YSU STEM High School student Mari Arakelyan said that while completing the assignments, they relied exclusively on reliable scientific sources, particularly Google Scholar and English-language scientific articles published over the past five years.

Narek Ghazaryan, a 12th-grade student who became the absolute winner of the olympiad, won a gold medal and received the Grand Prix, said the examination format was quite difficult.

"In the final stage, we completed an assignment consisting of two parts. The most difficult issue was probably the language barrier. We answered questions in English within the given topic, while the local accent was a little difficult for us to understand," Narek said.

Silver medalist Elina Hakobyan also highlighted the language barrier, which, she said, they overcame with dignity.

In addition to medals, the students returned from Bali with strong impressions and new friends. They became close with representatives from Vietnam, Indonesia and China, with whom they continue to actively communicate.

YSU STEM High School students won the following awards at the international competition:

Narek Ghazaryan, 12th grade: gold medal and Grand Prix;

Elen Ghazaryan, 10th grade: silver medal;

Zhanna Hovsepyan, 11th grade: silver medal;

Davit Hovhannisyan, 11th grade: silver medal;

Elina Hakobyan, 11th grade: silver medal;

Ani Baghdasaryan, 12th grade: silver medal;

Mari Arakelyan, 10th grade: bronze medal.