Student Spotlights
Meet our latest Student Mini-Grant Awardees.
Get inspired for your own journey addressing plastic pollution.
Jeremy Nathanael Dihardja | Indonesia
Plagued by seeing plastic sachets polluting his local environment, Jeremy began to collect discarded sachets and stitched them into large-scale public art installations that spark community dialogue around waste and consumption. Building on this work, he launched Jelantah-to-Soap, a program that collects used cooking oil (minyak jelantah) from school canteens and upcycles it into high-quality cleaning soap for students.
Sophia Mann | United States
Sophia leads a project that tackles textile waste by upcycling discarded clothing into durable dog beds. After months of testing, she developed a method to transform spent textiles into firm, functional stuffing. Through a school-wide clothing drive and hands-on workshop, Sophia’s project teaches students about the links between fast fashion, plastic pollution, and waste while turning unusable fabrics into dog beds donated to local animal shelters.
Fatiha Oyafajo | Nigeria
Fatiha leads a project in rural Nigeria that addresses the connection between plastic pollution and menstrual waste. Through hands-on workshops, women and girls learn to sew reusable menstrual pads from sanitized, upcycled cloth while learning practical knowledge about menstrual hygiene, waste management, and environmental health.
Chloe McKenna | United States
Chloe is reigniting a community coalition in St. Petersburg focused on upstream plastic reduction through business education, community organizing, and policy advocacy. Her work strengthens local zero-waste systems and reduces single-use plastics at the source by aligning businesses, residents, and decision-makers around shared solutions.
Justine Marie C. Fuentes | Phillippines
Justine’s project uses plogging as a recurring campus activity to engage Gen Z students in climate justice and intentional movement. Each gathering combines a plogging route, followed by a discussion linking collected waste to plastic production, waste systems, and the disproportionate impacts on Global Majority communities.
Harrison Bolton | United States
Harrison tables weekly at the Long Beach Marina Farmers Market to educate consumers on the harms of single-use plastic, while showcasing simple switches to reusables they can make in their daily lives. Through observation, surveys, and conversations with market managers, vendors and customers, his project explores practical, community-based solutions for plastic-free Farmers Markets.
Gloria Chi | United States
Gloria is the founder of Fungi for Future, a circular-economy mushroom initiative that repurposes discarded coffee grounds from local cafes into growing substrate for pink oyster mushrooms. By transforming food waste into locally grown produce, her project cuts landfill waste, strengthens local food systems, and helps prevent single-use plastic packaging from entering the waste stream.
Amorina Putri Tarizka Wirasetya | Indonesia
Amorina leads an arts-based education project that engages students in exploring plastic pollution through creative reuse. Through transforming discarded plastic bottles into wayang botol puppets, students learn about environmental responsibility while developing original stories that will be shared during local performances rooted in the ancient tradition of puppet theatre.
Coji Senanayake | Sri Lanka
Coji is the founder of Cee Green, an initiative that utilizes creativity to bring about environmental awareness and climate action to young students. As a part of this initiative, Coji is developing a new short film centered on plastics impact on the planet, while also expanding distribution of his plastics-awareness children’s book, Myrtle, Burble and the Green Thing.
Chloe Kuperstein | United States
As a Green Labs Coordinator, Chloe leads efforts to reduce plastic waste in on-campus research labs by guiding them toward more sustainable procurement and disposal practices. By leveraging her institution’s partnership with Polycarbin, her project advances a closed-loop recycling system for single-use lab plastics and promotes the adoption of scientific materials made with recycled content.
Apply for a Student Mini-Grant!
This award is open to all Wayfinders looking to get some financial support for their personal education and development, school efforts, community projects, internships, networking events, etc. connected to addressing the plastic crisis.
Get started!
Start earning credit for making a difference in your community, at your school, and at home.
