02/09/2026
THIS. IS. WHAT. DIGIVATIONS CHAMPIONS! Bravo!
A fifth grader hand-wrote a letter to a university — it just turned into $11.5 million.
When Eniola Shokunbi's teacher at the Commodore MacDonough STEM Academy in Middletown, Connecticut challenged her class to design a solution for future pandemics, most people would expect a poster board project. Instead, Eniola went home, researched air filtration, and hand-wrote a letter to the University of Connecticut.
"I noticed a lot of times when the doors and windows were closed in a classroom, it would get really stuffy and my friends were often catching colds and other sicknesses," the then-ten-year-old explained. "I think it's really important for students to be able to learn in a clean and healthy environment."
Her letter landed on the desk of Marina Creed, director of the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative, who was already leading an effort to bring low-cost air filtration to Connecticut schools. "She hand-wrote me a letter and I was so impressed," Creed said.
Creed brought a team of scientists — all women — to Eniola's fifth-grade classroom. They taught students about air pollution and helped them build a device called a Corsi-Rosenthal Box: a brilliantly simple air filter invented during the COVID-19 pandemic by air quality expert Richard Corsi and filter manufacturer CEO Jim Rosenthal. It's just four HVAC filters arranged in a cube shape with a box fan on top, assembled in about fifteen minutes for roughly sixty dollars in hardware store supplies. Eniola and her classmates decorated theirs like an owl — their school mascot — and named it "Owl Force One."
"Just seeing how amazing and passionate these women in science were was really inspirational," Eniola said.
But this wasn't just arts and crafts. Working alongside UConn scientists, Eniola helped test the filters and track whether cleaner air actually reduced sick days in her school. Then UConn brought the device to the Environmental Protection Agency for lab testing.
The results were staggering: the sixty-dollar filter removed over 99% of airborne viruses, including the virus that causes COVID-19. "It showed that the air filter took out over 99% of viruses in the air," Eniola told NBC Connecticut. "And that it was effective."
Armed with real data, Eniola became the youngest spokesperson anyone in the Connecticut legislature had ever seen. She met the Lieutenant Governor. She presented to lawmakers. State Senator Matt Lesser didn't mince words: "Eniola is fabulous. She wows every room she's in front of. She's a real rock star."
In October 2024, Connecticut's State Bond Commission unanimously approved $11.5 million in funding through UConn's SAFE-CT program to install these air filtration systems in public schools across the state — with Eniola, now twelve years old, sitting in the room.
Her goal? Every classroom in America.
"A lot of people don't realize sometimes that the only thing standing between them and getting sick is science," Eniola said. "If we're not investing in that, then we're not investing in kids' futures."
She also says she wants to be the first female African American president of the United States. Based on what she's already accomplished before she's old enough to drive, nobody in Connecticut is betting against her.
