Filipino student takes home gold award for innovative green research
John Ronan Reyes, a Grade 8 student from Tabaco National High School in Albay, recently won the Gold Award at the International Environment Sustainability Project Olympiad (INESPO) for his research work on the potential use of Tonight (ficus nota), a common Philippine shrub, as an adsorbent for copper contaminated water.
An international science competition in Netherlands, INESPO is organized by the Cosmicus Foundation and aims to involve students in bringing communal consensus on social environmental values, and to eventually eliminate environmental problems through education.
Reyes, whose research topped 80 other projects, is the only Filipino student who was able to reach the finals of the Olympiad, besting more than 250 students from 35 countries. At the exposition of his research project, Reyes was joined by his advisers Segundina Gonzales and his father Ronaldo Reyes, a chemistry teacher who recently became an honoree of The Many Faces of the Teacher (TMFT) for his contribution to society.
TMFT is an advocacy campaign of Bato Balani Foundation Inc. and Diwa Learning Systems Inc. that lauds exemplary educators in the country. Diwa, which is now celebrating its 35th year, demonstrates its ceaseless commitment to move the nation by equipping, elevating, and empowering the teaching community through TMFT.