The YouthQuest Foundation Year in Review: 2019

3D ThinkLink teachers from Freestate, Capital Guardian and South Carolina Youth ChalleNGE Academies with YouthQuest Director of Instruction Tom Meeks

Teachers are at the heart of our mission to change the lives of at-risk youth. That’s why, as we roll the closing credits for 2019, our 3D ThinkLink instructors top the list of people who played starring roles for the YouthQuest Foundation this year.

Thanks to the teachers we trained at National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Programs serving Maryland, South Carolina and the District of Columbia, 57 more cadets completed our 3D ThinkLink class this year. That brings the total number of Youth ChalleNGe cadets we’ve reached to more than 300 since 2013, when we began using 3D printing as a vehicle to teach underserved teens job skills and life skills.

Jamarr Dennis, Demyound Wright and Germaine Rasberry at 3D ThinkLink Teacher Training in February 2019
Teacher Training, February 2019

This year’s instructors were: Germaine Rasberry and Demyond Wright from South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy; Jamarr Dennis and Aaron Ancrum from Maryland’s Freestate ChalleNGe Academy; Keith Hammond and La-Toya Hamilton from DC’s Capital Guardian Youth ChalleNGe Academy.

In addition to carrying out many other responsibilities at their schools, these teachers devoted time to conduct classes and print students’ projects, organize 3D-printing community service projects, and transport their cadets to Vocational Orientation field trips. They also traveled to our lab in Chantilly Virginia, in February and September to sharpen their skills at teacher training sessions. In June and November, they returned with top students selected for Advanced Training, which provided hands-on learning experiences to prepare the cadets for continued education and careers in 3D printing.

PHILLIPS Schools

As with the ChalleNGe programs, workforce development became a new priority this year in our partnership with the PHILLIPS Programs for Children and Families.

The PHILLIPS teachers we trained have used their 3D ThinkLink skills to tailor our curriculum for their students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These students often have great attention to detail, deep focus, tenacity, pattern recognition and outside-the-box thinking skills that help them excel at 3D design and printing.

YouthQuest Director of Instruction Tom Meeks is working closely with Sam Son, who oversees the 3D classes at PHILLIPS, to identify employment opportunities for young people with ASD.

PHILLIPS student Ladrious Eaton works with YouthQuest's powder/binder 3D printer
PHILLIPS student Ladrious works on the iTech project

A highlight of the year was a project Tom organized to demonstrate how we can help teens on the autism spectrum develop skills to become independent, successful adults.

PHILLIPS teachers Jim Field and Joseph Phillips brought Henry, Ladrious and John, students from the Annandale and Fairfax, Virginia, campuses, to our lab in June to be part of a unique cross-country collaboration with kids at a STEM-focused magnet school in Vancouver, Washington.

Award-winning teacher John Zingale’s 7th and 8th graders at iTech Preparatory did 3D scanning of 19th-century artifacts from the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site to create an interactive virtual museum. But they had no way to make realistic, full-color replicas of the scanned artifacts that could be handled and studied without fear of damaging the originals. Tom arranged to have the PHILLIPS students use one of the powder/binder 3D printers in YouthQuest’s lab to create the reproductions for iTech.

Over the course of three days, Henry, Ladrious and John mastered every step of the process: taking in the 3D image files; preparing the files in the printing software; setting up and operating the printer; post-processing the printed objects; and packaging them for shipping to Vancouver.

Henry, John and Ladrious with box of 3D printed artifact replicas to ship to Vancouver iTech Prep
Henry, John and Ladrious

It was especially gratifying to have Henry involved in the iTech project. He was in our first 3D class at the PHILLIPS School in Annandale and attended a week of advanced training in our lab in 2017. Henry, who says he wants to be “a tech guru,” graduated from PHILLIPS in June.

The Mighty, a website that connects and empowers millions of people facing disabilities and health challenges, featured this article about the difference our program has made in Henry’s life.

The iTech project came full-circle when “Mr. Z” and some of his students visited our lab while they were in the DC area for the National History Day Contest. PHILLIPS Career Partners Director Lindsay Harris was there to let the students from Vancouver know how much the team from her school appreciated working with them.

Volunteers, Partners and Sponsors

In keeping with this year’s focus on teachers, it’s fitting that our Volunteer of the Year is a teacher.

2019 Volunteer of the Year Chris Adams with YouthQuest Foundation Co-Founders Allen Cage and Lynda Mann at VIP Reception August 1, 2019
Volunteer of the Year Chris Adams

YouthQuest Co-Founders Lynda Mann and Allen Cage presented the award to Chris Adams, a Technology Education teacher at Franklin Middle School in Chantilly at our annual VIP Reception in August. Chris has been sharing his expertise with us for several years. This year, he facilitated the donation of two Z310 powder/binder 3D printers from Fairfax County Public Schools, our 2019 Community Partner Award winner. The professional-grade printers are vital to our job-training initiative.

Our 2019 Strategic Partner Award went to University of Maryland Terrapin Works in appreciation for hosting Vocational Orientation tours of the school’s 3D printing facilities and department of mechanical engineering for Capital Guardian cadets twice a year.

Harford Community College continues to be a valuable resource for our Freestate cadets, as David Antol provides tours of the school’s 3D printing lab. During a Vocational Orientation event in October, they got to meet Maxwell Herzing, a 2018 Freestate graduate who’s now one of Prof. Antol’s Engineering Technology students. Maxwell’s message to the cadets about the importance of doing something you love and not being afraid to make mistakes was right on the mark.

South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy cadet Ka’Dejah Riley with other 3D ThinkLink students at Vocational Orientation at University of North Carolina-Charlotte 3D printing lab
Vocational Orientation at UNCC

Dr. Jeff Raquet at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte Department of Mechanical Engineering and the 3D printing team at Duncan-Parnell in Charlotte provided valuable Vocational Orientation experiences for our 3D ThinkLink classes from South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy.

All the success we’ve enjoyed this year would not be possible without the financial support of our sponsors. We were pleased to welcome DFS Construction Corporation and DCG Dominion Construction Group as first-time sponsors of our annual golf tournament in August, along with returning sponsors AOC Solutions, FEDAC, the Poole Foundation, the POH Group, Kipps DeSanto, Insperity, Gombos-Leyton, Jones Lang LaSalle, Old Dominion National Bank, CrossFit PR Star and Valley Forge Acquisition Corp.

2019 YouthQuest golf tournament volunteers at Trump National Golf Club Aug. 5. 2019
Golf tournament volunteers

We’re also grateful to our golf tournament volunteers — Linda Ackerman, Emily Blake, Rachel Cage, Edna Davis, Nikki Gombos, Rob Hall, Val Hightower, Steve Levenson, Ingrid Louro and Tony Sanderson – along with the entire team at Trump National Golf Club, Washington DC.

Because of the contributions everyone has made to our mission this year, we’ve been able to help at-risk teens break the cycle of failure and get on course for success.

Three of this year’s students from SCYCA earned $1,000 scholarships for essays they wrote about what their 3D ThinkLink experience taught them.

“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.” – Naomi Perez

“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 Riley

“I can do anything … nothing is beyond my reach.” – Hunter Lusby

The Year in Photos

The YouthQuest Foundation Year in Review: 2017

YouthQuest Director of Instruction Tom Meeks with students and teachers at advanced 3D ThinkLink training at Capital Guardian Youth ChalleNGe Academy in December 2017

One of the many highlights of 2017 for our foundation was being nominated as Public Service Innovator of the Year by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce for our 3D ThinkLink Initiative in March. The months that followed were filled with examples of our program’s value in building better lives for at-risk youth.

“Our innovation is not that we introduce kids to 3D design and printing, it’s how we use this technology as a vehicle to teach the important life skills at-risk youth lack, such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and the confidence to fail,” said YouthQuest Co-Founder and President Lynda Mann. “3D printing is perfectly suited for showing kids who’ve failed in school that mistakes are part of the learning process – that they are the beginning of something good, not the end of something bad.”

YouthQuest Director of Instruction Tom Meeks at the foundation's display at the Greater Washington Innovation Awards Showcase in March 2017
Greater Washington Innovation Awards Showcase in March

Being a Greater Washington Innovation Awards nominee gave us the opportunity to tell regional leaders about YouthQuest’s life-changing work with young people like Aunya’ Jones, a top student in our 3D ThinkLink class at Maryland’s Freestate ChalleNGe Academy.

“Before 3D printing, I did not believe in myself, and I had accepted the opinion that I was not good enough,” Aunya’ wrote in an essay that earned her a $500 YouthQuest scholarship to continue her education.

“3D printing has helped guide me into making better decisions and gave me a new life skill along the way. It has really helped me understand my self-worth because now I know I can design my own future,” she explained. “I now see the bigger picture to my life’s problems and I’m not afraid to face them.”

We also awarded scholarships this year to essay contest winners Asia Baker-Stevenson from Freestate and LaMarcus Corley from the District of Columbia’s Capital Guardian Youth ChalleNGe Academy.

In his essay, LaMarcus described how the 3D ThinkLink experience changed his way of thinking. He said it helped him control his anger and improve his concentration.

“When I come to class, my whole mood changes,” LaMarcus wrote. “I become happy because I know that I’m in a good place.”

LaMarcus also said our class brought out the creativity he used to keep “all bottled in” and taught him how to “think about stuff differently.”

A YEAR OF ACHIEVEMENT

Aunya’ and LaMarcus are also two of the ChalleNGe Cadets who took part advanced training this year in the 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab at our headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia.  

reestate ChalleNGe Academy Cadets Stephen Brown and David Kelly in Freestate ChalleNGe Academy Cadets Stephen Brown and David Kelley in advanced training in YouthQuest's 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab in June 2017
Advanced Training in the 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab in June

The June lab sessions focused on our project to train 3D ThinkLink graduates as Youth Mentors, giving them the skills and equipment to teach others about 3D printing and serve as positive role models in their communities. LaMarcus was there along with fellow Capital Guardian Cadet Adrian Vasquez, and David Kelly and Stephen Brown from Freestate.

Adrian told us during lab week that he used to have problems in school and our class helped get him back on track.

“I would get good grades, but my mind would always be on something else. So I got caught up with stuff I wasn’t supposed to be around. But ever since I started 3D, my mind has been nowhere near that stuff,” he said. “It’s like therapy, a type of therapy. Working on 3D designs keeps me focused, not on the other nonsense stuff.”

In December, we tried something different by taking our advanced training out of our lab and into the classroom at Camp Schwartz on the Capital Guardian campus. Cadets Keyonte Alston, Quadaija Hudgens and Alexander Price honed their design and printing skills during three days of training. A couple of weeks later, they graduated from Capital Guardian along with four other Cadets who completed our 3D ThinkLink class; Divine Carr, Markus Kemp, Keith Pettiford, and Herman Signou.

Throughout 2017, we repeatedly saw proof that what works for the teens in ChalleNGe academies also works for at-risk kids in other kinds of programs we serve.

PHILLIPS School students and teachers visit YouthQuest's 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab in April, 2017
PHILLIPS students and teachers explore the 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab

The PHILLIPS Programs for Children and Families has seen great success tailoring our curriculum for students on the autism spectrum. PHILLIPS was so pleased with the results of last year’s 3D ThinkLink pilot project at its Annandale, Virginia, school that it expanded the class to its Fairfax campus this year. Some of the students from last year’s class are now involved in a 3D printing club at the Annandale campus, too. It was a pleasure to have PHILLIPS students visit our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab in April.

It’s also been gratifying to watch the growth of our partnership with Horizons Hampton Roads, an academic, cultural, and recreational program for kids from low-income families in Virginia’s Tidewater area. We started with last year’s Summer Enrichment Program, providing a 3D ThinkLink class for sixth-graders at a single site in Portsmouth. This summer, the project expanded to sites in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, reaching a total of 32 kids. The students were “engaged and challenged” by our curriculum, according to the annual report from Horizons Hampton Roads, and teachers were excited to try some new projects they’d developed that used 3D design and printing to support STEM lessons, such as creating a paddlewheel for a ferryboat.

“The 3D printing was a great experience,” HHR teacher Franklin Baker reported. “From the design portion to troubleshooting, our students had to problem-solve from the first step to the last.”   

Highly skilled, enthusiastic teachers are the key to our program’s success. That’s why our teacher training sessions are so important. Teachers from several partner programs came to our lab for a week in February and October this year to learn about curriculum changes, software updates, and new printers and materials.

“We want to give them the best tools and motivate them to learn how to use those tools so they can be the best teachers for the at-risk students we serve,” explained YouthQuest Director of Instruction Tom Meeks.

A YEAR OF GIVING

Giving back to the community is one of YouthQuest’s core values.

One of the ways our organization gives back locally is by sponsoring the annual Step Up Loudoun Youth Competition. This was the sixth straight year we’ve provided the prize money for the contest, which challenges teens in Loudoun County, Virginia, to identify problems in their community and implement solutions.

Top 10 teams in the 2017 Step Up Loudoun Youth Competition
Top 10 teams in the 2017 Step Up Loudoun Youth Competition

Kriti Ganotra from Broad Run High School earned the $1,000 top prize this year for developing a free device that detects computer network vulnerabilities.

“I want to bring it to Loudoun County, using high schoolers to create a community where everyone is educated about cyber-bullying, cyber-security, cyber-threats and technology,” Kriti said in an interview with Loudoun Youth. “I want to bring this to every single house and eventually patent this into something that we can develop all around the nation.”

YouthQuest supporters also gave back generously this year to make our 12th annual golf tournament a success. Even though it rained for the first time in the history of our signature fundraising event, more than 100 players and volunteers turned out at Trump National Golf Club on August 7.

We were especially pleased to welcome Insperity, Pure Storage and ePlus as new sponsors this year.

For the first time, the winning team received 3D-printed trophies that were designed and produced in our lab by Tom Meeks.

YouthQuest Co-Founder Allen Cage putts in the rain at the golf tournament August 7, 2017.
YouthQuest Co-Founder Allen Cage putts at the golf tournament in August

The tournament’s Silent Auction raised more money than ever and we collected an additional $2,500 through a new fundraising tool, the Giving Tree. The tree displayed at the post-tournament reception and the August 3 VIP Reception hosted by Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar in Tysons was decorated with tags that were 3D printed in our lab. Each tag gave donors an easy way to provide equipment, supplies and other resources for our 3D ThinkLink students.

Also at the reception, we presented our 2017 Volunteer of the Year Award to Tammy Haug, National Sales Manager for AOC Solutions. Not only does Tammy volunteer at the golf tournament every year, she assisted us with our 10th Anniversary Celebration in Chantilly and the 3D printing workshops we conducted at the National Society of Black Engineers Convention in Anaheim, California, in 2015.

Our 2017 Community Partner Award went to Copy General in Sterling, Virginia, whose constant support for YouthQuest includes printing the program for the golf tournament every year. IMADE3D won the Strategic Partner Award. We’ve worked with IMADE3D since 2015 and are big fans of their JellyBox 3D printer kit. We have several of the printers in our lab and our advanced students always enjoy building and using them.  

Volunteers at the golf tournament in August
Volunteers in the clubhouse at the golf tournament in August

Our donors also gave generously on November 28, when we participated for the second year in #GivingTuesday, a global celebration of philanthropy. We also became part of AmazonSmile this year, giving Amazon users the ability to select YouthQuest as their charity. For every purchase they make, the AmazonSmile Foundation makes a donation to us.

2018 promises to be another year filled with innovations and expansion for us. We’re eager to start the next round of teacher training in February, as that will be a major step toward reactivating our 3D ThinkLink program at South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy, which has been on hiatus for a year. In previous years, SCYCA has been our largest 3D class site.

We are also working toward opening the 3D ThinkLInk Creativity Lab for use by the general public and we’re planning a new fundraiser that we expect will be quite lucrative for us as well as for one lucky raffle winner. Stay tuned for details in the new year.

There’s no need to wait to help us, though. We welcome contributions at any time of the year. Please click here or contact Operations Manager Juan Louro at juan.louro@youthquestfoundation.org or 703-234-4633.

Happy New Year to all our friends!

THE YEAR IN PICTURES