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!”

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.”