This browser is not actively supported anymore. For the best passle experience, we strongly recommend you upgrade your browser.
| 1 minute read

Wow! This is what our future looks like :) High-schoolers build fellow student a prosthetic hand

HENDERSONVILLE, Ten. (WKRC/WTVF/CBS Newspath) - After a month of hard work, a team of high school engineering students in Tennessee built a fellow student at their school a robotic prosthetic hand.

In the Hendersonville High School engineering class, students are creators.

"You're supposed to be engineering, coming up with new ideas, solving issues, and just making things better than how they used to be," said senior Leslie Jaramillo.

The class, called "Engineering: Design and Development," is where many students became friends.

"I've definitely made most of the memories that I've made here inside this classroom," said junior Ella Holtermann.

Not long into the semester, the student brought a new person into the fold.

"I didn't know them. So, I actually got introduced to them by the teacher, and then that's what I started working on and I got to be friends with them," said sophomore Sergio Peralta.

Peralta isn't in their class, but quickly became a part of every class period.

"As I was growing up, like during my first years of school, I had a lot of people asked me what's wrong with -- what happened to my hand, lots of people, and I used to just say even in kindergarten, ‘I was born like that,'" he said.

Peralta was born with one hand that never fully formed.

"It really wasn't that difficult," he said. "I got used to it so that I could do pretty much a lot of stuff, almost everything."

The "almost everything" part is why his fellow students were tasked with building him a prosthetic hand.

"I didn't know Sergio when we were gonna do this," Leslie said. "We were kind of starting from scratch, but we were able to look at some previous designs from online and once we started with an idea, it went off from there."

After four weeks of designing, 3D printing, and sizing to Peralta's hand, the class put their product to the test with a game of catch.

It turned into a new hobby Peralta never knew was possible.

"I never expected this. Living without a hand for 15 years and they actually offered me two is actually pretty cool. No one has ever offered me this stuff," he said. "Changed my life"

"I've definitely made most of the memories that I've made here inside this classroom," said junior Ella Holtermann.

Tags

innovation, education, community, engineering, design, 3d printing, english, highlight

Creating, sharing and inspiring change. For good.

The global issues we face are challenging and interconnected. They can seem insurmountable. But if you know where to look, co-operation, positive change and hope are all around us. Build Beyond Even Better is a project that recognises the progress being made, and the amazing people who are making a difference. Share your own hopes, pledges and projects with #BBEB, or become a contributor.

Please read our BBEB Charter PDF.