Students Larissa Andrade and Briana Ruiz, accompanied by their teacher and biologist Darriel Palomino, went to Dubai on January 12 to represent Cetmar 07 of Veracruz and participate for the Zayed Sustainability award.
The awards ceremony took place during the early hours of Tuesday the 14th, where, through a broadcast on YouTube, the joy of the young women was seen when they won first place in the Global High Schools category.
The project that they, along with their classmates Sinhue Hernández and Abril Ruíz, developed with the help of Piher de Jesús Librado Santiago, representative of the Cooperative of Fishing Production and Tourist Services Nuevos Pescadores de la Laguna, is about the reforestation of the red mangrove and the capture of the lionfish.
In Dubai, where they will remain until Friday the 17th to enjoy the wonders of the United Arab Emirates, they competed against three schools from America: one from Colombia and another from Canada.
At 17 years old, Larissa Andrade, who dreams of being a biologist like her teacher, and Briana Ruíz, who couldn’t sleep after being chosen to travel to Dubai, traveled to the city of Abu Dhabi for the awards ceremony.
The prize is 150 thousand dollars that are already budgeted by Cetmar to continue with the project to rescue the red mangrove and to begin capturing the lionfish, an invasive species in the Veracruz reefs.
Finalists among almost 6 thousand competitors
The project and the four 17-year-olds, guided by biologist Darriel Palomino and engineer Eduardo Aragón, were selected as part of the 33 finalists of the Zayed Sustainability Prize.
This global prize recognizes and rewards small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), non-profit organizations (NGOs) and global secondary schools with sustainable, impactful, innovative and inspiring solutions.

Source: lasillarota