This Christmas season, one ambitious student at Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, set a goal to raise money to fund the buildinng of a 3D printer which extrudes hydrogels, and to do it from scratch.
This is Taylor Gardner’s senior project as she prepares to graduate in June. The senior project is a requirement of every student at CCHS.
To raise the funds, Taylor, under the mentorship of Dr. An Nguyen, CCHS faculty, came up with a plan to laser cut personalized ornaments and invite CCHS families and faculty members to order these in advance of the holidays. Originally, the goal was to make only about 25 ornaments to cover just a portion of the 3D printer parts and the material costs of making the ornaments. However, the community responded by helping Taylor reach 200% of her goal.
Thanks to this outpouring of support, she and Dr. Nguyen will be able to cover all expenses related to the project including all of the parts for the 3D printer, materials to design, build, and program the syringe adapter, and ingredients to develop a hydrogel formulation that can be extruded with a 3D printed.
“This fundraiser was successful by any means, but I think the most valuable part of this campaign was the overwhelming support she felt from the faculty at CCHS, especially during the pandemic,” said Dr. Nguyen.
“We received our target number of orders within 24 hours and when we had to switch from laser cutting the ornaments to 3D printing them, all of our customers were understanding. On the other side, Taylor learned how to 3D model in a relatively short time to create the personalized ornaments for everyone,” she said. “All in all, I am humbled to have witnessed all of the support the community has shown Taylor, and how hard she worked to make this project happen. I am sure that when she looks back on her senior year at CCHS, she will think of how everyone backed this crazy project of hers so that she would have something to look forward to during this pandemic.”
Taylor plans to attend the University of North Carolina, Asheville,and major in biochemistry/environmental sciences.
“I do plan to keep the printer for further research and expansion on the project,” she said, “but anyone at CCHS can use it in the future and I will be happy to share it with the students.”