Four students who completed 3D ThinkLink training at National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Academies have earned scholarships to help them take the next steps on their career paths.
YouthQuest presented the $500 scholarships to Maryland Freestate ChalleNGe Academy Cadets Bradley Berry, Trevor Haney and Dante Isom, and DC Capital Guardian Youth ChalleNGe Academy Cadet Jacob Foote, during graduation ceremonies in June.
3D students compete for scholarships by writing essays about the personal impact our class had on them. All four of the winners in this latest class cycle said the 3D ThinkLink experience opened their eyes to job opportunities they had never imagined.
“Taking 3D printing has sparked my creativity. I love the fact that it gets my imagination going,” wrote Bradley, who hopes to pursue an engineering associate’s degree at Harford Community College.
“This program has changed my mind on what I want to do after Freestate. I never had an actual passion in life, but I want this to be my career,” he explained. “It’s crazy how a few months can affect the rest of your life.”
Dante’s essay focused on his interest in becoming a graphic designer.
“My 3D ThinkLink experience was a positive experiment for me because it shone some light of a future opportunity for me working in the graphic design industry or something that could involve 3D printing because I would already know how to work with the 3D printers,” Dante wrote.
The Capital Guardian class trips to the University of Maryland’s 3D printing facilities and the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, DC, made a big impression on Jacob.
“It showed me that I have the skills to continue my education and use it in my future as a 3D designer,” said Jacob in his scholarship-winning essay.
Like Jacob, Trevor was one of the top students in his 3D class and attended advanced training sessions in May at our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab in Chantilly, Virginia.
“When I started Freestate, I didn’t have enthusiasm about my life,” Trevor recalled in his essay. “Getting accepted into 3D printing was one of the first things that brought me hope at Freestate. In every class we have, I learn something new, which makes me very intrigued about the next class.”
Trevor credited our class for motivating him to have a positive attitude and stick with the rigorous 22-week residential program at Freestate. He took our failure-is-not-final message to heart and learned that “hard work pays off.”
Trevor’s hard work paid off in the form of several awards, in addition to our scholarship, that were presented to him at Freestate’s graduation ceremony in Joppa, Maryland. Now he’s planning to join the Army and find a position that will allow him to apply the 3D skills he learned in our class.
Our semiannual essay contest is judged by New York Times bestselling author John Gilstrap, whose latest novel in the Jonathan Grave thriller series is Scorpion Strike.
Since 2013, YouthQuest has awarded a total of $9,500 in scholarships to 19 essay contest winners.
CLICK HERE to read the four winning essays