ROCHELLE — Three Rochelle students are the faces of this years’ America’s Farmers grant program, sponsored by Monsanto.

The students, Rylan Scott, Keanon Voss, and Megan Thiravong are part of the team that helped build a 3D prosthetic arm for local farmer Jake Hubbard.

Every year farmers have the opportunity to nominate a local public school for a chance to win grants to support education in the STEM fields. When people across the country visit the America’s Farmers website, they are greeted with a picture of the trio.

Rochelle Middle School had already received a $25,000 grant from the program. Technology teacher Vic Worthington purchased a 3D printer with a portion of those funds, going on to research and build the 3D-printed prosthetic arm with the help of the students, gaining nationwide media coverage.

“Winning an America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education grant gave my students a lesson that they will remember for a lifetime,” said Worthington in a prepared statement. “When word spread about what our students were building, we had countless people in the community and even an engineer from Ohio pitch in to make this project a reality.”

Worthington said he was happily surprised when he visited the website.

“Last year’s project with Jake’s prosthetic was obviously a pretty major thing for us, so I’ve got a special place in my heart for all 10 of the kids that were involved in it,” Worthington said. “As I’ve started working on this year’s version of the grant, it’s been a fun reminder to see that picture each time I’ve needed to get back onto the site.”

Farmers are able to nominate a local public school through April 2; schools will be notified by Monsanto and given until April 15 to create and submit their grant proposals.