When grade 12 student Hanna first learned about Neil Squire’s Makers Making Change (new window) program from her mother, an occupational therapist who works with children with disabilities, it immediately caught her attention.

“I thought that was so cool,” she shares. “I’ve always been kind of interested in engineering, and I just thought I’d email and see if I could help.”

Since then, Hanna has been a dedicated volunteer for over a year. She has been building switches and adapting toys, as well as doing some quality control work on devices made at build events.

Hanna’s learned a lot of skills — she had never soldered prior to volunteering — all while making a difference in her community. She especially enjoys that the adapted toys she works on go to kids with disabilities and helps them play independently.

“It’s really rewarding,” she says. “It’s very important to me to help others and to help the world. Basically, I’ve always wanted to be able to help people, but I didn’t know if I could with engineering, and this has opened up a whole another world when it comes to that.”

While Hanna has always had an interest in engineering, volunteering with Makers Making Change made her feel confident in choosing that path — she intends on going into engineering for her postsecondary studies.

“I wasn’t fully set on engineering before I volunteered, but now I 100% am,” she says.

For now, however, Hanna enjoys her time volunteering with Makers Making Change as she finishes her final year of high school.

“I love this organization and what they work towards and what they do, and it’s very lovely that I get to be a part of it.”

This post originally appeared on the Makers Making Change (new window) website.