David and Jonathan Tamen

David and Jonathan founded “Helping Hands MB” a student-led group that uses innovation, technology, and kindness to make positive change. David became partially deaf at age 13 and this inspired him to help others with disabilities. Through his passion for robotics, 3D printing, and technology, David makes 3D printed prosthetic hands and forearms for children in Haiti. He started a 3D Printing Club After winning a $5,000 STEM grant to buy 3D printers and supplies for his school where he taught classmates 3D printing and step-by-step instructions on how to assemble a prosthetic. He then made arrangements with a Christian ministry to deliver 10 prosthetics to a hospital in Port-au-Prince where a technician fits patients and teaches them to use David’s prosthetics. When a devastating earthquake struck, David launched a Haitian Relief project, collecting 300 pounds of canned foods and baby supplies. Before the holidays, he enlisted classmates to donate toys to the children receiving prosthetics, buying Barbie dolls of color, including a doll with a prosthetic leg.
Jonathan is among 25 students nationwide named Prudential Emerging Visionaries. A grandson of Holocaust survivors, Jonathan works to inspire and educate others in Holocaust and Tolerance Education and create awareness of hate and indifference. As an Ambassador with the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial, he is also a leader in the Names, Not Numbers documentary project on local survivors that aired on national television. Jonathan has won national awards for his films on heroes and rescuers. His film “The Silent Hero,” was on display for a year in the lobby of the U.S. Department of Education and is part of the Miami Dade School’s Holocaust curriculum. As Captain of his school’s FIRST Robotics team, he created the Boom Town project to teach robotics and coding to third graders at a Title 1 elementary school and recruited girls and minorities to join the team. Both David and Jonathan are amazing students working towards building a better world.