Holt High School student Savannah Est continues to bring home awards for her ambitious research project, and this time it was on an international stage! Savannah took Third Place in the Energy and Transportation category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held May 13-18 in Pittsburg, PA.

There were more than 1,500 high school finalists from across the globe competing for scholarship money through their research projects. Savannah’s project, “Optimization of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells” has netted her $7,000 in prize money over the last five months.

Savannah developed the project beginning last fall while working with Dr. Terry Woodford-Thomas of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, as well as under the advisement of her Independent Science Research Teacher at Holt, Jennifer Berendzen.