Students Give Classmate a (Robotic) Hand

Starting at a new school is perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking experiences a teenager can go through, but luckily for Sergio Peralta, a teacher and his fellow learners did something truly special to help him fit right in.

The 15-year-old had recently transferred to Hendersonville High School near Nashville, Tennessee, and due to a birth defect, which left his right hand only partially formed, he kept a low profile so that “nobody would ever find out.”

However, engineering teacher Jeff Wilkins noticed the shy teen and put into motion a plan involving three other students, a 3D printer, some designing, and four weeks’ worth of work.

The result? A brand new prosthetic right hand – and a couple of new friends – for Peralta, something he would never have expected “in a million years.”

One of the boffins, Leslie Jaramillo, told a local publication: “You’re supposed to be engineering, coming up with new ideas, solving issues, and just making things better than how they used to be.”

Commenting on his new friends giving him a hand – quite literally – Peralta simply said: “They changed my life.”

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