- Classmates of Tennessee student Sergio Peralta, 15, built him a robotic hand, CBS News reported.
- A teacher who had learned Peralta's hand was not fully formed told him his students could help.
- The prosthetic that the engineering students created changed his life, Peralta said.
A 15-year-old student who was born with a hand that didn't fully form received a life-changing prosthetic from his fellow pupils.
Sergio Peralta told CBS News that during his first days at Hendersonville High School in Tennessee, he had felt like hiding his arm in his sleeve. However, Jeff Wilkins, a teacher at the school found out and assigned his students the task of building him a robotic hand.
Peralta told the outlet he never expected three of his classmates would come together to help build him the prosthetic. "I never expected it. Like, never in a million years," he said.
Bob Cotter, the school principal, told BBC News, a CBS partner, that the Engineering: Design and Development class was designed to take the theoretical "and turn it into reality."
So the three teenagers took up the challenge to create Peralta a hand. They spent a month designing it using online software and 3D printing techniques.
One of the students told local CBS affiliate WTVF: "You're supposed to be engineering, coming up with new ideas, solving issues, and just making things better than how they used to be."
Once they finally created a model that seemed to fit, it was put to the test. Peralta caught a ball with his right hand for the first time and "everyone was freaking out," he told CBS News. "They changed my life, you know."
The principal said in his statement to BBC News that what the students did for Peralta "is a testament to the students we have here who care about each other and the program that Jeff Wilkins has built."
Hendersonville High School didn't immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider, made outside normal working hours. Peralta could not immediately be reached for comment.