READING, St James — Yohan and Honey Advani were impressive in this year’s National Mathematics Olympiad, taking home two awards for Fairfield International Academy (FIA), the first time the private school participated. Twelve-year-old Yohan was awarded second place for grade eight and 16-year-old Honey took first place for grade 11.

The competition, which is open to all secondary schools, was organised by the Department of Mathematics at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Mona. The goal is to identify mathematically talented students, encourage them in their studies, and provide extra resources and special training.

The siblings’ father, Sunil Advani, spoke with pride about their accomplishments.

“They are really angels. Anywhere they have been, from junior schools, they have outperformed. They are very well-loved. I guess [it is] because they are academically very good. Every teacher says, ‘It’s a pleasure to teach your kids.’ I don’t want to boast, but I am blessed,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

He said Honey’s accomplishments include being a two-time Spelling Bee champion for St James.

“She won Maths Olympiad in grade eight. She came first in grade eight and now when she is competing again in grade 11, she came first,” said Advani.

He was equally effusive about his son’s achievements.

“Yohan is a National PEP [Primary Exit Profile] boy for the year 2022 in Jamaica, and he has won some coding competitions in grade six. Now he is going to try again to win some more coding competitions,” he said.

“He likes coding, that’s his speciality. He loves that and now he won the Math Olympiad. So they have lots of trophies lined up. Hopefully, they will continue further up, which I would be definitely proud of,” added Advani.

He said that pride would also be shared by his wife, Dr Rekha Advani, who operates Happy Smiles Dental Services in St James, as well as teachers and the school.

Advani said his children have been high achievers since kindergarten.

“It’s like they both are competing with each other. [The] sister does something, she is the trendsetter, [and] the brother has to break the record,” he explained.

He said in the early days when Honey was doing well in Spelling Bee, the family would jokingly ask Yohan what he had accomplished. The young boy remained silent then.

“But when his time came in grade six, he became a national champion boy, which was a big deal. He got a perfect score at that time. He was in the media at that time, and he just put up a masterstroke and he did it. He did coding and now he is following his sister’s footprints, and he is doing the Maths Olympiad too. So it’s good to have healthy competition at home. Competition which is healthy is always good. Within the school, within the family, within the country, no problem,” added Advani.

Yohan, who wants to be an aerospace engineer, said his motivation comes from his sister, who also wants to pursue the same career.

“I have been basically trying to almost beat her at everything now. I am following in her footsteps when it comes to maths and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and STEM, because we are both interested in similar fields, pretty much. She has been my role model,” said the young boy.

Former university lecturer Janielie Walters, who teaches Yohan mathematics, economics, and coding, said he has a gift for computer coding and will be entering a competition in May.

“At his age, he surpassed my level of coding,” stated Walters. “We developed a math game at the school and he decided that he is going to try and make my life easier — because I have to coach the maths team — and he did a full coding for it [maths game].”

For her part, Honey, who transitioned to FIA from another institution and is entering the competition for a second time, is elated that she won first place for grade 11.

“It was a very challenging competition and I think there was a certain amount of pressure, considering the last time I participated I did get first, but as the days went by, the competition got harder. The questions were a bit harder than I remembered them to be and I felt pressured and unsure how it was going to turn out, but I am really blessed that I was able to achieve that feat.”

She was recently selected to represent FIA in the Student Programme for Innovation in Science and Engineering (SPISE), another first for the institution. She will leave for Barbados in the summer.

SPISE is an intensive five-week residential summer programme organised by the Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF) for Caribbean high school students who are 16 to 18 years of age, gifted in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and interested in studying and exploring careers in these disciplines.

Science educator of nine years who joined FIA two years ago, Sharryl Spence, said Honey is an advanced student.

“Honey holds her own at the undergraduate level already and she is just in grade 11. If we are having conversations, they tend to be very stimulating and critical. She is very analytical. For somebody who has that capacity to be that change and represent the nation at a high level of experience, you want to make sure that they are in that certain environment that is stimulating them,” stated Spence.

Honey, who said she has reached heights that she never thought possible, is encouraging other students to participate and try to be their best in school.

“If you just try to enter these competitions, whatever you enjoy doing. Because everyone has something they enjoy or are good at. You may not find it yet, but just try, because you never know what doors will open because of a certain choice you made,” said Honey.

Her brother and father also shared similar words of encouragement.

FIA, which started in 2018 and currently has 50 students enrolled with an academic staff of 11, will break ground soon for the construction of its own campus.

“The school is very small, but in terms of the talent and potential here, it is through the roof. What happened this year shows that you can achieve anything; it does not matter the size. We even placed in the top four in robotics competition this year as well. Going forward, I think next year is exciting times and more people will be a little more motivated to try,” said Walters.