About Me

Thought I needed a place to put a “more about me, super extended, third person autobiography”: I guess my life first ‘really started’ when I was in the third grade. My dad had just been offered a job as a manager at a new computer chip manufacturing company coming to town. Their original facility was in Dresden, Germany, and as part of the job, they needed my dad to move to Germany for a year and train for the position. My family was all ears. The idea of being expats excited us. While in Europe, we visited over 15 countries. The entire experience changed me, I am a much more global person, and I like to know what’s going on in the world. Seeing other life-changing experiences, like when a family friend of our’s only in the second grade was diagnosed with cancer, was when I knew that I needed to help. I was able to start a bottle drive fundraiser at my school. At the end of each school day, I had to go to each collection box all around the campus and haul them off with my friends to the grocery store a block away. It was enjoyable for me because I was hanging out with my friends, but also making a difference. Our school was able to raise more than $750 to send to her family to pay for medical bills and other expenses. After the bottle drive, I came away with a better sense of how terrifying cancer can be, so I signed up for the Saint Baldrick’s foundation. The foundation provides grants to that research childhood cancer, in hopes of finding a cure. In addition to raising money, you can also choose to shave all of your hair off to show solidarity to children that need to have chemotherapy as part of their cancer treatment. I have participated every March for the past five years and have independently raised over $7,000. This charity has made a huge difference in cancer research and keeping the public informed with the detrimental effects of cancer. Even my own success amazes me and leaves me with determination. I have had multiple businesses, the first of which I started when I was in second grade and was called Riley’s Movie Maker Business. I created movies for everything from weddings to birthday gifts, mostly for friends. Later on down the road, I created an online store on a site called Teachers Pay Teachers, where worksheets and curriculum can be sold to teachers. Because my mother is an elementary teacher, I had a wealth of resources I had created for her. I uploaded them to the store and sold them for profit. I’ve already sold these products over 400 times. It’s always been kind of cool for me to think that some other kid out there is using something I created to learn a skill. Additionally, I was asked to host an online video podcast remotely while only 12 years old about technology for kids and teenagers. The show had ten episodes and would try to simplify news in technology, so that kids could comprehend it. We also discussed apps and other resources. My latest endeavor has been as an online youth voiceover and narration artist. I started two years ago on a popular freelancing website not thinking it would grow to be so successful. To date I’ve worked on over 350 separate projects with clients from all over the world and saved over $3,000. You can hear my voice in a museum in Russia to a hypnosis school’s commercial in New Jersey. Now, I’m starting to branch off and do video testimonials as well. I even have my own app published right now. I hired freelancers from around the world to create and build an app under my direction. In case you’re wondering, the app plays news summaries from multiple worldwide providers to conveniently play all in one app. Take a look here. I won first place for Mentor Foundation USA’s national Living the Example video contest. The purpose of the contest was to showcase teens from around the United States who are doing good things and their community and leading exemplary lives. The grand prize was a trip to Los Angeles to tour the YouTube space, and a $500 H&M gift card, which I donated to a local elementary school students in need. Contact me by tweeting me, @walzri.