Introducing the 3D ThinkLink Youth Mentor Program

Our 3D ThinkLink training includes 30 hours of classroom instruction and labs, a four-hour community service project and a day of Vocational Orientation. Students selected for advanced training spend a week in our 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab to deepen their understanding of 3D design and printing, and to further develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills.

But then what happens?

We want our students to retain the benefits of their 3D ThinkLink experience after they’ve completed their training. In fact, we want them to spread those benefits to others.

3DThinkLink students introduce youngsters to 3D printing
at the 2014 USA Science & Engineering Festival

That’s why we’ve launched a program to exponentially increase our foundation’s ability to reach at-risk youth.

The goal of our Youth Mentor Program is for the life lessons we instill in our students to be passed along from person to person, spreading through under-served communities.

We’re going to give our most motivated and capable advanced students the tools they need to continue learning about 3D and to share their knowledge with their family, friends and neighbors. 

Each student in our Youth Mentor Program will receive a Tech Pack, which includes a 3D printer, design software, laptop computer and training.

Your donation of $500 will buy a Tech Pack for a deserving student. To contribute to this important new program, please contact YouthQuest Operations Manager Juan Louro at juan.louro@youthquestfoundation.org or (703) 234-4633.

We know that mentoring is especially beneficial for at-risk teens.

By turning our students into mentors as they make the transition to adulthood, we will build up their self-esteem and empower them to inspire younger kids and even older people.

They will drive positive change from within their communities by giving back and being role models, as well as resources for 3D design and printing.

Student Snapshot: Tyeshia Blackmond

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

“Back home, not too many people believed in me and I often heard what I could not or would not do, but this program has given me more power to prove them wrong,” Tyeshia Blackmond wrote in an essay about her 3D ThinkLink experience.

The youngest of nine children in her family, Tyeshia had quit going to school a couple of years ago and was “hanging out with the wrong crowd.” She enrolled in Washington DC’s Capital Guardian Youth ChalleNGe Academy last year in hopes of turning her life around.

Tyeshia said she’s grateful for the opportunity to participate in our 3D program at CGYCA.

“I am aware that everyone does not get a chance to be exposed to this type of technology,” she explained in her essay. “I know of people back home that do not have an idea of what 3D printing pertains to and can do.”

Being in 3D ThinkLink class brought out her creativity and built up her confidence.

“I would have never known I could be so passionate and it has been very empowering to develop such skills,” she said.

Tyeshia, who’s aiming for a career in social work or counseling, was chosen as one of two student speakers at CGYCA’s graduation ceremony in June, 2015. She went on to work as a summer intern at the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. 

Exploring New Materials and Printers in the 3D ThinkLink Creativity Lab

One of our favorite parts of summer is having students come to the 3DThinkLinkCreativity Lab. We invite outstanding graduates of our introductory 3D ThinkLink classes to attend advanced training sessions in the lab at our headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia.

NeLazjay Brown and Kelvin Stoddard from Washington, DC’s Capital Guardian YouthChalleNGe Academy and Henry Spiegelblatt from the PHILLIPS School in Annandale, Virginia, spent two days in the lab last week exploring 3D printing methods and materials that go far beyond what they experienced in their schools.

On Wednesday, Director of Instruction Tom Meeks introduced the students to the new M3D printer and the many types of filament it can use. The Cube machines they had in their classrooms print only with hard PLA or ABS plastic, but the M3D can handle flexible filament that feels like soft rubber and comes in many eye-catching translucent colors.

Henry Spiegelblatt, NeLazJay Brown and Kelvin Stoddard test materials

Tom also showed the kids Chameleon filament, which changes color when the temperature rises or falls. They did experiments with hot and cold water to record temperature points that produced color changes for various types of thermochromic filaments.

Because our 3D ThinkLink project is as much about thinking as it is about 3D printing, the students spent the rest of the day coming up with ideas for things they could make with the new materials they’d learned about – then designing and printing their creations.

Kelvin Stoddard removes powder from
a model car printed on the Z450

We also demonstrated our Z450 printer, a full-color inkjet and powder bed machine, to teach the kids about a 3D printing method that’s quite different from the FDM (fused-deposition modeling) they used at school. Instead of extruding layers of melted plastic filament like the Cube or M3D, the Z450 builds layers of ink and liquid binder on super-fine gypsum powder. 

IMade3D CEO Ladi Goc explains the JellyBox 3D printer to the lab class 

Thursday’s lab session was devoted to the JellyBox, a unique 3D printer kit from IMade3D. It’s designed to be assembled, operated and taken apart over and over again so students can understand how 3D printers work. Besides being a great teaching tool, the JellyBox produces beautiful, high-quality prints in a variety of materials.

IMade3D CEO Ladi Goc and outreach director Bruce Troutman spent the day with the kids in the lab, but didn’t give them any written instructions. Instead, the students examined a fully assembled JellyBox, asked questions and figured out what to do through trial and error. This helped strengthen their problem-solving skills, a key element of 3D ThinkLink training.

Our lab students assemble JellyBox 3D printers  

NeLazjay, who has strong mechanical abilities, especially enjoyed the hands-on learning activity. In about three hours, the kids finished building their JellyBox and started doing test prints. Ladi and Bruce said they’d never seen a group complete the project so quickly.

Tom and the students at
YouthQuest's VIP Reception

The big payoff came on Thursday night, when the students attended our annual VIP Reception to meet some of our leading supporters and show off their 3D printing skills. Our guests at the event hosted by Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar in Tysons Corner were fascinated to see the JellyBox and M3D printers in action and impressed by what the kids had accomplished.

Last week’s experience was a confidence-builder for Henry, Kelvin and NeLazjay. We hope it inspires them to go further with 3D printing and to build on the thinking skills they’re developing.

We also want to thank technology teacher Jim Field from the PHILLIPS School and CGYCA staffers Tonya Lewis and Ricardo Abbott for being with us during the lab sessions. They seemed to enjoy the activities as much as the kids!

Henry Spiegelblatt, NeLazJay Brown and Kelvin Stoddard receive certificates from YouthQuest President Lynda Mann and Director of Instruction Tom Meeks

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.