Mukudzei Seremani, a sophomore at Bowdoin College in Maine, got a taste of the challenges that wheelchair users face after suffering an accident in 2022 that put her in one of these devices for about a month and a half.
"I was just bored," she told the private liberal arts college, which summarized her project on its website, "because while my friends could come visit me, I couldn't go visit them. The roads were bad, and houses didn't have the facilities for wheelchair access."
Seremani decided to use her experience to help people facing disabilities in her community by developing lightweight and portable, easy-to-make wheelchair ramps. Her ramp utilizes plastic collected from the roadside, which she shapes using molds made from produce crates that are used at local markets.
Thanks to a small grant from Education Matters, she's also teaching others to build the ramp — she is currently working with five local wheelchair users in a pilot program. She's also teaching the group how to make dishwashing liquid to offer them another possible income stream.
Not only did Seremani's idea result in an innovative mobility tool for wheelchair users, but her clever use of discarded plastic also helps address pollution. The world produces about 400 million metric tons of plastic waste each year. Much of that ends up in oceans and other bodies of water, threatening aquatic life and humans who rely on food and water from these ecosystems.
Meanwhile, "upcycling" — or reusing materials from discarded products to make new ones — is growing in popularity, offering a unique environmental solution. For instance, Woolybubs makes baby shoes from recycled plastic. And Thailand-based fashion house Pipatchara is now making some of its handbags out of recycled plastic.
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As a result of her efforts, Seremani was nominated to attend the 2025 AFS Youth Assembly in New York City in August. A biochemistry and sociology major, she hopes to one day work in public health advocacy.
She also hopes to one day create a nonprofit that addresses systemic barriers for people with disabilities.
"A wheelchair ramp is useful," she told Bowdoin, "but if the systems aren't there, the same problems remain. I want to create infrastructure and support that really allows people to feel included in their communities."
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