Adapted from the Diocese of Texas
Senior Jenna Rogge approached the St. Stephen’s Episcopal School’s Project Idea and Realization Lab (PIRL) with a desire to build a prosthetic hand.
She was assisted by Educational Technology Coordinator Nicole Wortham, who spent last spring and summer creating an innovative community known as Makerspace and defining its ethos.
“The PIRL is a space for all members of the St. Stephen’s community to engage in design, innovation, and creative services while also recognizing the individual, local, and global hope and change that compassionate making can bring to society,” Wortham said. “The PIRL is equipped with butcher-block tables, Oodle storage and stability stools, as well as state-of-the-art equipment like the Stereolithography 3-D printer that uses UV light to cure a liquid resin.”
Rogge spent close to 90 hours designing, scaling, printing, and assembling the parts for a functional prosthetic hand that she named the Raptor. Once she completed the Raptor, she identified areas for improvement and began working on a new design.
In early November, Wortham announced to the school community that Rogge had earned her first badge for production and assembly of her second prosthetic limb, which she nicknamed the Cyborg Beast.
“Earning a production badge means that Jenna is now able to search through case files and identify a child in need of a prosthetic limb, 3-D print and assemble the hand, and then send it off to its new owner,” Wortham said. “She’s now approved to make prosthetic limbs for children in need across the world.”
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
