An interest in engineering and science sparked Katie Tschoepe ’21 and Isabella Zarmakoupis ’21 to pursue a summer internship at Innovative Prosthetics. 

They smoothed molds, pulled plastic, sawed sockets, and drilled parts together. However, both left the internship with greater lessons learned than just how to create a prosthetic leg.

Isabella compared the process to art and appreciated how specialized each product needed to be. 

“Sometimes, when I would smooth a mold, I would think about the curvature of the calf and how there would never be another product exactly the same,” she said. “I liked to imagine that I was an artisan fulfilling someone’s order.”

The best advice Katie received from her mentors over the summer? To invest her time and effort into things that serve and benefit her future goals. 

Isabella learned the value of making a mistake and that anything could be fixed.

“I appreciated the atmosphere of comfort more than anything,” she said. “I hope that my future job will feel as rewarding and fulfilling as this one.”

Katie agreed. Grateful for the opportunity, she is much more aware of what a privilege it is to be able to walk on two legs.

“The fact that I learned to do something that would infinitely increase someone’s quality of life was amazing to me,” she said.

Each product is unique, and Isabella found this especially worthwhile.

“Every limb is hand-crafted for one, and only one, individual whose life will be tremendously impacted,” Isabella said.