12-Year-Old Black Girl Invents Air Filters To Keep Deadly Viruses Out Of Classrooms

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Twelve-year-old Eniola Shokunbi is on a mission to clear the air in her classroom and hopefully in classrooms all over the country with a new air filter that she invented. 

As a fifth-grade student at Commodore MacDonough STEM Academy in Middletown, Connecticut, Shokunbi and her classmates were given a project to come up with a solution to address future pandemics like COVID-19. Shokunbi was inspired to create an air filter system that’s able to remove cold and COVID viruses from classrooms, and she turned her idea into a reality.

“The air goes through all the sides, and it comes out of the top, so it filters in and out,” she explained to NBC Connecticut. 

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The students collaborated with scientists and the University of Connecticut to create their inventions. Shokunbi’s innovative filter consists of a box fan, four furnace filters, duct tape and cardboard and cost only $60 to make. Her filters were tested and certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who “showed that the air filter took out over 99% of viruses in the air and that it was effective,” Shokunbi said.

Her filter is so effective, in fact, that the State Bond Commission unanimous approved $11.5 million for the construction and installation of the air filter system for other schools in the state. Shokunbi’s filter has already been installed at Commodore MacDonough STEM Academy. The grant funds will be allocated to UConn under the school’s Supplemental Air Filtration for Education Program that will oversee the construction. 

Inventions like Shokunbi’s filter may one day save students’ lungs and lives. According to the American Lung Association, 10.3% of Black Americans have asthma, a rate that’s 44% higher than white Americans. High rates of asthma and lung infections in Black children have been linked to the environment where they live. Black children and families are more likely to live in areas that are exposed to traffic pollution and environmental hazards that can lead to more frequent illness and exposure to viruses. 

Thankfully, innovative minds like Enolia Shokunbi are hard at work creating a healthier future.

“A lot of people don’t realize sometimes that the only thing standing between them and getting sick is science,” Shokunbi said. “If we’re not investing in that, then we’re not investing in kids’ futures.”

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