Some students from Queen of the Rosary College, Onitsha, Anambra State, have clinched second place in the just-concluded World Affairs Challenge.
The challenge is an international programme and competition designed for middle and high school students to develop and implement their own S.M.A.R.T. solutions for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The team carried out innovation in Queens’ Lyfe bags – a 100 per cent plantable biodegradable bag made from rice straws, banana fibres, and corn husks and infused with tomato, pepper and watermelon seeds so that the bags can grow into plants when disposed of.
With this innovation, the team came second in the challenge. A team from the USA won first place and a bilateral team of students from the USA and Iraq won third place.
The students led by their teacher and mentor, Mr John Onuigbo, competed against over 760 participants during the various preliminary rounds, which narrowed down to 28 teams in the Global Championship, where the girls were named the Global second-place winning team in the high school division.
About nine countries were represented in WAC global finals this year: Nigeria, Ghana, USA, France, Iraq, Turkey, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Morocco.
Reacting to the development, the school principal, Rev. Sister Maria Nwankwo, expressed joy and gratitude to God for the win.
“We have been putting in the work to provide our students with world-class tech education. This has been evident in the win of our students in global innovation competitions like this and we thank God. We are building students who would make Onitsha their Silicon Valley,” she added.