The AlgaePrize is a new competition from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) that encourages high school through graduate students from any US based school to present their ideas and develop them for commercial-scale algal cultivation and products. On April 20, 2022, the 15 finalist teams were announced and awarded $5,000 to fund the research and development of the proposed projects over the next year. Three of the fifteen finalist teams chosen are from the Santa Fe Community College Alternative Fuels and Algae Cultivation programs. The first finalist team project is a seaweed cultivation experiment utilizing brackish aquifer water in New Mexico to grow sea vegetables. This team intends to explore the potential of emerging marine aquaculture markets in landlocked desert regions. The second finalist team project investigates reduction in energy consumption using algae to treat agricultural wastewater for nutrient recapture and water recycling. The third finalist team is investigating the use of algae in phytoremediation capacity of an algal polyculture, from a legacy uranium mining site in New Mexico, to remove radionuclides from contaminated surface waters. The utility of algal based phytoremediation systems in addressing the impacts of other extraction industries is also being examined.