Student Snapshot: Alycia Freeman

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

Alycia Freeman knew she was headed down the wrong path.

YouthQuest President Lynda Mann presents a
$500 scholarship to Alycia Freeman in June

Like so many of the at-risk teens we serve, Alycia was facing a combination problems at home and at school.

Her dad was doing drugs and her parents divorced when she was 13. She moved five times and skipped school often, spending most days caring for her ailing grandmother, who needed knee-replacement surgery.

“I then started to follow in my father’s footsteps,” Alycia recalled.

After a year of spiraling downward, she decided she had to change her life.

“I knew I had to be successful. I didn’t want to be a product of my environment,” she said.

Alycia enrolled in South Carolina Youth ChalleNGe Academy at the beginning of this year, determined to earn her GED. Instructors recognized her potential and selected her for the 3D ThinkLink training we provide at SCYCA.

Being in our 3D class helped her get re-engaged in education, Alycia wrote in a scholarship-winning essay about her experience. It also inspired her to study surgical technology at Savannah Technical College after completing the ChalleNGe program.

Alycia’s class visited 3D Systems headquarters in Rock Hill, South Carolina, during Vocational Orientation Day in April. She said it was eye-opening to discover how the 3D technology she learned about in class is used in the health care field.

“Being that I took care of my grandmother, I want to help others live a better life in every way possible,” Alycia explained. “3D printing encouraged me to become a surgical nurse. … I’m now motivated and determined to go to school and get into the medical field and actually complete it!”