Prabesh Koirala from Budhanilkantha School selected as one of 5 winners to represent NEPAL at IOAA

National Astronomy Olympiad 2014 ( NAO-2014), first Astronomy Olympiad in Nepal, has finally selected its 5 winners who will participate in the 8th International Olympiad in Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) during August in Suceava, Romania. NAO 2014 was launched in the month of January, 2014 and the applications were opened the same time by holding selection exam on March 22 where many participants from all across Nepal participated out of which 20 students were selected. Later in May,  Pre-Closed Camp was held with 12 students  participating and Closed Camp from June 1-7 where 5 winners - Ashirbad Acharya, Bibek Kumar Pandit, H C Regan Babu Bhatta, Kiran Adhikari and Prabesh Koirala selected through our closed camp to represent Nepal at IOAA with the Nepal delegation.

Here is what Prabesh Koirala has to share with +View Your Choice- तपाईको सोचाई हाम्रो रोजाई -

"I am an ignorant fresh graduate from Budhanilkantha School.  I was born and raised at the foothills of Machhapuchre and at the city of lakes.  

I am ignorant because I take nothing for-granted.  And there is benefit of being foolish- the more you are foolish the more you will learn. I was a ‘why and how’ boy from my earliest childhood. I remember having keen interest in physics. I loved it as it depicted a complete me. Like me, physics never presumed anything instead rummaged for logic, behind the happening.
I have watched the night sky as a child with my grandfather beside me, telling me the story of the stars. Every different stars etched on the sky was a different story. They were not just stars but something more. Till this day, whenever I sit under the stars, I gaze at them like I watched it the very first time, as a naïve child. I seek the stories myself. At times, I feel down for not having my grandfather by me. But then, from the abyss of my heart I know that the brightest one is him. 

I participated in NAO to seek answers about the stars. Are the stories a myth or reality? Why are there stars on the sky? Why is the sky not pitch-black but filled with white dots that twinkle? And from the experience of the closed camp, I am very sure that I would find the answers soon. 

I see myself as a jet of water: powerful, destructive, essential yet very easy to mould. 

The passage that I would be provided will determine my shape. And IOA is the passage that will shape me to a great thinker who wonders on the realm of logic. I cannot say that I am the most powerful jet of water yet I can guarantee that I am the most efficient. Even if I get beaten down by the challenges I would dare to stand up and drive myself beyond my estimated potential .Believe me, every single drop of me will yield its greatest output. 

Forgive me but I will not change for the sake of attending IOAA. I shall still be the naïve child who stares at the stars not to know about their position in space but to know about the story my grandfather would have told me, had he been right by me looking at the same star."

+View Your Choice- तपाईको सोचाई हाम्रो रोजाई - is the outreach partner of +National Astronomy Olympiad 2014. More on what has been NAO 2014 doing for its crowd funding campaign.

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Photos from the Closed Camp

Post by National Astronomy Olympiad 2014.