STORIES BEHIND

About RegenPlast

Our Mission

RegenPlast is the world’s first social enterprise focused on plastic environmental education and social entrepreneurship. Founded by a University of Pennsylvania educator, we empower K–12 students to understand the impact of plastic waste—and inspire them to lead change in their communities.

Our world-class network includes an educational team from the University of Pennsylvania, Broadway producers, artists and symphony orchestras from Germany, local artists and entrepreneurs from the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and global nonprofit partners. Guided by our core principles—innovation, interest-driven learning, entrepreneurial thinking, public service, and sustainable development—we design project-based learning (PBL) and social entrepreneurship courses that go beyond traditional classrooms to make environmental education engaging, meaningful, and creative.

Through project-based learning across music, art, theater, STEM, and entrepreneurship, students explore the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—and our signature fourth R: Regeneration.

At RegenPlast, we turn awareness into action, proving that small changes can create a big impact. Join us in building a sustainable future—one student at a time.

A letter from our founder

I hold many professional titles—Certified Educational Planner, Education Entrepreneur, College Admissions Consultant, Trainer, Travel Enthusiast, Environmental Ambassador, and Mother. For over a decade, I have dedicated myself to American education and college admissions planning, working with more than a thousand families and helping many students earn offers from top U.S. universities, including the Ivy League.

Yet, during these years, I began to notice a troubling pattern: many students focus heavily on academics and grades, eagerly competing in contests and conducting academic research, but often neglect broader social and environmental issues. Meanwhile, leading U.S. universities seek socially engaged students—those aware of and capable of tackling global challenges. As a consultant, my best option then was to encourage community service projects, but I lacked effective strategies to guide students toward deeper, more impactful engagement.

In 2022, at the age of 40, I decided to revisit a dream I had set aside 17 years earlier and returned to school. I chose the Educational Entrepreneurship (EdEnt) master’s program at the University of Pennsylvania for a simple reason: every student in this program enters with “an education-related issue they deeply care about and want to address.” Before enrolling, I kept asking myself: What do I care about most?

  1. My family

  2. My students

  3. The future of education

  4. The Earth’s environment

These answers felt broad—until a visit to the American Museum of Natural History in New York with my 7-year-old son. Standing before a mammoth fossil, he asked, “Mom, will other animals disappear in the future too? Will I see more animal fossils in museums someday?” His innocent question struck me deeply. I knew he was glimpsing a cruel reality.

In that moment, a chain of thoughts rushed in: our family’s commitment to nature education, Shanghai’s new garbage-sorting policy, my husband’s comment that “Taiwan’s recycling rate is so high that incinerators have nothing left to burn,” and a striking fact I had once seen—if a Coke bottle had been buried during George Washington’s lifetime, it could still be unearthed today. (Washington died in 1799; a plastic bottle takes over 450 years to decompose.)

That was the moment when I realized: I wanted to focus on environmental protection, especially plastic pollution.

Every professor warned me—environmental education is challenging. Friends and family even joked, “Who wants to work on a project about trash?” But I kept refining RegenPlast’s business plan, revising it countless times, often late into the night. Eventually, I found my breakthrough:

If I could connect students’ personal interests to the issue of plastic pollution, engagement would follow naturally.

Since then, my vision has gained support from many people. I am grateful for my decade in college counseling, which gave me a deep understanding of what motivates today’s students; for my lifelong commitment to environmental values; and for my enduring passion for education. I thank my family, my professors at the University of Pennsylvania, my mentors, and friends from all walks of life who have accompanied me on this journey, listened to me, and offered invaluable advice.