I grew up in a country where most people had never looked through a telescope, and where "astronomy" wasn't a career anyone talked about. The Bangladesh Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (BDOAA) changed that - first for me, and then for hundreds of students I've worked with since.
The BDOAA's mission is simple: give high school and college students across Bangladesh a reason to look up. Through problem sets, training camps, and national competitions, we build a community of young people who learn to think like scientists - not because they have fancy equipment, but because they have good problems and each other.
I've served as a mentor, problem author, and organizing committee member for the BDOAA over several years. I've trained and mentored students who went on to represent Bangladesh at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA). In 2022, I had the privilege of serving as the Team Leader for Bangladesh at the IOAA in Kutaisi, Georgia - walking into the opening ceremony with a team of students who, a few years earlier, couldn't have pointed out Orion.
The Olympiad taught me that the most important thing in science education isn't the answer - it's the quality of the question. A well-crafted problem can make a 16-year-old feel like they just discovered something, and that feeling is what turns curiosity into a career.