Student Snapshot: Adonis Gonzales

This is the first in an occasional series about outstanding young people who have completed our 3D ThinkLink class.

NASA had the Mercury 7 – the first class of American astronauts. YouthQuest has the Original 8 – our first 3D ThinkLink class.

One member of that groundbreaking group is Adonis Gonzales. We met him early in 2013 when he was a 17-year-old Cadet at Maryland’s Freestate ChallNGe Academy.   

He told us he always wanted to become a master electrician. But he had given up on high school, staying home “watching TV or sleeping” instead of going to class. Eventually, he said, the principal told Adonis he’d missed so many days that he couldn’t come back to school. After working a series of brief odd jobs, Adonis realized he needed more education in order to provide “a better future” for himself, his girlfriend and their baby daughter.

Adonis enrolled in Freestate, where instructors recognized his potential and selected him for our 3D ThinkLink pilot project.

“When I first went into the class, I saw the computers and printer and thought that it was going to be too hard,” he said in an interview with the Fairfax Connection. “But then the instructor said that if we could imagine something, then we could create it. The first thing I made was a heart with my daughter’s name on it.”

“Your mind can go farther than you think,” Adonis told us after his class took Vocational Orientation tours of a 3D Systems production facility and Prototype Productions, Inc., in Northern Virginia.

Adonis has been in an electrician apprenticeship program for more than two years and says he uses the problem solving skills he learned in our class to work through obstacles on the job.

“It helps me be creative with my mind and materials around me,” he said about his 3D ThinkLink experience.

Adonis also took our “failure is not final” message to heart. He didn’t pass his GED exam the first time he took it – or the second time. But he didn’t give up and he learned from his mistakes until, on the third try, Adonis earned his GED.

The Original 8 - Freestate ChalleNGe Academy, June 11, 2013

We Get a Kick Out of This 3D-Printed Penguin Boot Project

Our students love stories like this one about Purps the Penguin. 3D Systems, our Strategic Partner in the 3D ThinkLink Initiative, teamed up with a middle school class in Connecticut to create a 3D-printed boot for the injured bird at Mystic Aquarium.


You might have seen stories about other ailing animals – dogs, cats, birds, horses, turtles and more – that are living better lives now, thanks to 3D-printed devices. One of our favorites is Derby, a dog born with deformed front legs. We discovered that 3D Systems created Derby’s prosthetics with the help of Derrick Campana of Animal Orthocare, located just a few miles from our Chantilly, Virginia, headquarters.

Derrick Camapana shows students
a prosthetic foot for a dog

We connected with Derrick last year and he hosted a vocational orientation event to show our students from Maryland and DC how he uses 3D scanning, design and printing in his work. He also made it possible for us to acquire some high-end equipment for our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab, including a Z450 full-color inkjet and powder bed printer. We honored Animal Orthocare with our 2015 Community Partner Award.

Learning about animals like Purps and Derby, and visiting places like Animal Orthocare, is inspirational for the at-risk kids we serve. Many of them tell us they want to use their 3D skills to help others. Some are particularly interested in what they can do for animals.

For example, Kimora Felton was touched by Derby’s story. Kimora completed our 3D ThinkLink course, graduated from South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy last December and came to our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab in January for a week of advanced training.

We awarded Kimora a $500 scholarship for an essay she wrote about her 3D ThinkLink experience. In it, she explained how she hopes to become a veterinarian and use 3D printing to help her patients.

Kimora Felton at work in our
3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab

“Involving 3D printing into this field will give deformed, damaged or diseased animals that are on the verge of being euthanized a second chance,” wrote Kimora, who enrolled in the Veterinary Assistant program at Horry Georgetown Technical College in Conway, South Carolina, earlier this year.

Kimora is getting a second chance, too, thanks to SCYCA and YouthQuest.

“Before getting involved with 3D printing my mind was scattered. Trying to relieve anger and finding ways to express myself, I’d do things that made me act out of character, which led me to think I wasn’t worth anything at all,” she said. “Finding myself as a student of YouthQuest Foundation Program made me think of myself as someone. I finally found a way to express myself through creating digital objects and turning them all into 3-dimensional physical models.”

What Can 3D Printing Build? Better Lives for At-Risk Youth

The most important part of our 3D ThinkLink Initiative isn’t 3D printing. It’s all about thinking.

Poor decision-making – what our Co-Founder and President Lynda Mann likes to call “stinkin’ thinkin’” – has led to all sorts of trouble for the at-risk kids we work with. Our project is a fun, hands-on way of showing students how to learn from their mistakes.

A collection of failed phone case prints
in our 3D ThinkLink Creatvity Lab

The process of turning an idea into a 3D-printed object is fraught with failure. 

We have boxes filled with parts that didn’t turn out right the first time, or the second or third or fourth time – and we’re not alone.

In our classes, kids who once quit trying when they failed discover new ways of overcoming obstacles and reaching goals. 

We know our students will benefit from these critical thinking and problem solving skills throughout their lives, even if they don’t continue with 3D printing.

Listen to what some of our students and teachers say about the life lessons learned through the 3D ThinkLink Initiative.  

Welcome to YouthQuest's 3D ThinkLink Blog

The YouthQuest Foundation serves at-risk youth by providing the resources they need to become successful adults. We believe education – development of academic, vocational and life skills – is the key.

The 3D ThinkLink Initiative is our signature STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) education project. We use instruction in 3D design and printing as a vehicle to teach critical thinking and problem solving skills, encourage creativity and boost self-confidence.

Unlike other 3D printing initiatives, ours focuses on at-risk teens, not the Science Club kids. We reach those who would otherwise never be exposed to such innovative technology.

Since the project launched in 2013, nearly 200 students have completed our training, which includes 30 hours of classroom instruction and labs, a 4-hour service project and 8 hours of Vocational Orientation at universities and businesses where 3D printing is used. Twice a year, we invite outstanding students from the introductory classes to our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab in Chantilly, Virginia, for a week of advanced training.

We work primarily with National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Programs serving Maryland, South Carolina and the District of Columbia, which run residential academies where high school dropouts get a second chance. This year, we began classes for students with high-spectrum autism at the PHILLIPS School in Annandale, Virginia, and a summer program for low-income 6th graders at Horizon Hampton Roads.

With the 3D printing industry in the midst of explosive growth, students who’ve gained hands-on experience with this revolutionary technology have an advantage in competing for STEAM-related jobs.

Even more important, the 3D ThinkLink Initiative teaches teens how to think creatively and solve problems through experimentation and step-by-step improvement. It dramatically shifts an at-risk child’s perception – and society’s perception – of what’s possible for them.

The 3D objects they create rarely turn out right the first time, but having user-friendly design software such as Moment of Inspiration makes it easy for our students to learn from their mistakes. Instead of getting frustrated and giving up as they used to do, they analyze problems, re-think their design decisions and print again until they’re satisfied.

They come to understand that failure is not final – in 3D printing or in life.