The latest students to earn scholarships in the YouthQuest Foundation’s essay competition say our 3D ThinkLink class showed them how to achieve their dreams.
South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy graduates Hunter Lusby, Naomi Perez and Ka’Dejah Riley won $1,000 apiece to continue their education and stay on course for success in life. The scholarships were announced at the academy’s commencement ceremony in June.
Since 2013, more than 300 underserved teens have completed 3D ThinkLink training at National Guard Youth ChalleNGe programs, where we use an introductory class in 3D design and printing as a vehicle to teach both STEM-related job skills and important life skills such as problem solving, persistence and creative thinking.
Twenty-five ChalleNGe cadets have earned a total of $15,500 in scholarships for essays they wrote about the personal impact of their 3D ThinkLink experience.
The contest judge, New York Times bestselling novelist and longtime YouthQuest supporter John Gilstrap, noted the quality of the essays submitted in the most recent round of competition was significantly better than in previous class cycles. “Of them all, three stood out to me,” he said.
Naomi Perez wrote in her essay that learning about 3D printing helped her overcome the self-doubt she had felt all her life.
Naomi was raised by her grandfather, an auto mechanic who taught her about his trade. Her goal is to join the Air Force and become a mechanical engineer.
“I enjoy putting stuff together,” she wrote.
Naomi said her favorite part of class was helping to assemble and calibrate a new 3D printer with YouthQuest Director of Instruction Tom Meeks, who visited the SCYCA campus in the spring.
She said she learned so much that when her class went on a Vocational Orientation field trip to the Duncan-Parnell 3D printing center in Charlotte, North Carolina, to see an array of sophisticated, professional 3D printers, “it all seemed easy to me.”
“Now I can proudly say I feel like I’ve accomplished new and helpful things in 3D printing,” she wrote, adding that the scholarship would be “helpful for me to complete my dreams.”
“I believe that anybody and everybody can accomplish their goals in life. Why? Life is full lessons and blessings. That’s why I haven’t given up,” declared Naomi.
‘I’m Going to Make Something Out of Myself’
Along with classroom work and Vocational Orientation, cadets in our classes are required to do a community service project using their 3D skills.
In his scholarship-winning essay, Hunter Lusby described the satisfaction he felt when he visited a local hospital to teach children about 3D printing and make objects with encouraging messages on them for the kids.
“I’ve always wanted to help children who are in hospitals,” he wrote.
“From seeing how I can help people by creating designs with ‘I Love You’ on it, to realizing that I can do anything and that nothing is beyond my reach,” said Hunter, “It’s boosted my self-esteem.”
Ka’Dejah Riley also gained confidence in herself as a result of her experiences in our 3D ThinkLink class.
“For me being a 16-year-old African-American female from Sumter, South Carolina, I felt like I have always been doubted and looked upon like I am not level-headed,” she explained in her essay.
Ka’Dejah said she used to get into trouble all the time because she could find anything positive that held her attention.
“I always knew I was smart, but I always made the wrong choices growing up,” she wrote.
She went to the ChalleNGe program to turn her life around. The 3D ThinkLink class taught by Germaine Rasberry is where Ka’Dejah said she discovered her “hidden talents.”
Ka’Dejah hopes to put those talents to work in the field of health care, where 3D printing is used for everything from prototyping medical devices to making models for surgeons to study before operating on patients, to creating prosthetics and even replacement body parts.
“I want to show everyone at home and everyone who has ever doubted me I’m more than just the average teenager. I’m going to make something out of myself and I’m not going to go back to my old ways,” Ka’Dejah wrote.
“Thanks to Mrs. Rasberry, the South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy, and 3D-Printing, I have the knowledge and ability to be a better me and to live a better life.”
Click Here to Read the Three Winning Essays
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