Going For Gold: Meet 15-yr-old Nigerian student who beat US, UK, China to win global math competition

Nigerian teenager Faith Odunsi is doing her country proud after winning the Global Open Mathematics competition. She beat other contestants from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States to emerge the winner with 40 points, with the second trailing her with 10 points.

Faith, a final year secondary school student at the Ambassadors School, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, bagged $1000 for her win. Her father is a medical doctor and her mother, a businesswoman, and they are both extremely proud of her win. She claims to have gotten her mathematics genes from her father.

The fifteen-year-old high schooler prepared for the competition with the help of a teacher, who coached her after regular classes ended. Besides that, she also studied at night from 11 pm to midnight.

She wants to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering abroad because she believes there will be enough structures in place there to enhance the learning experience.

Faith says her academic work by no means affects her social skills. She has a knack for sports as well.

We hope her success will spur several other girls who would have otherwise shied away from Mathematics to take on its challenge and not allow its unpopularity to dissuade them from pursuing careers in math-related fields.