Emily Anghad and Nafisa Azizi from Brooklyn Technical School, won second place in the Spellman HV Clean Tech Competition. The international competition asks high schoolers to create a project based on their independent research. Anghad and Azizi designed a device that separates microplastics from water. They hope this award helps kick start their careers.

"High school research isn't that common I would say. And having this footing, this ground work that we have now and if we decide to pursue in undergrad would be really helpful. And the prize that we won would only attests to the validity of our research," said Anghad. The teens were awarded $7,000 to split. Both say they plan to use it to pay for college.