At the awards ceremony of the 26^th Math Olympiad in Costa Rica, 66 medals were distributed among the 132 high school students who reached the final events of this academic competition, which this year was hosted and organized by the University of Costa Rica. Of special note among the finalists was the high number of female students getting medals this year. This fact was not lost on Yokarime Rivera Solís from the Science High School of Limon, who was very proud of having earned a medal at the national level. Yokarime was interviewed by Semanario Universidad, and she explained

“We have to prove that we can, despite coming from a province where academic endeavor takes second place to unemployment and crime, make these achievements. Some girls lack effort or confidence, but this is a taboo that must be removed. I mean, women have earned gold medals at the Biology and Chemistry Olympiads.”

Indeed, more young female students in Costa Rica are increasingly showing higher affinity than their male counterparts in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Case in point: At the Fifth Robotics Olympiad in Costa Rica a few months ago, there were quite a few girls among the competing teams; some were even made up exclusively of female students. More recently, The Costa Rica Star reported on the special award earned by young Tico engineers in Russia, who developed the fastest and most efficiently controlled robotic device at the World Robotic Olympiad. Among the members of that team was Laura Fonseca.

If you visit this page from the Ministry of Science and Technology (Spanish acronym: MICIT), you will find 15 women who have been instrumental to the advancement of the STEM fields in our county. Let’s glance at, for example, the biography of Professor Adriana Troyo Rodriguez, whose research towards controlling the pesky and deadly Aedes aegypti mosquito has been recognized by the MICIT.

And what about Montserrat Cordero? A couple of years ago, this young student from Costa Rica made her country proud by earning a scholarship to attend United Space School at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

The facts above represent a welcome societal shift in Costa Rica in the sense that girls are being encouraged to explore the STEM fields if they are interested in them. Towards the end of her administration, former President Laura Chinchilla was not reserved about reminding her constituents that the election of a woman to Costa Rica’s highest office was only the beginning of a greater push towards gender equality in our country, and it looks as if she was right in that regard.