Granite Falls High senior wants to pursue geology studies at Western

Published 8:10 pm Sunday, March 20, 2016

GRANITE FALLS — Ricky Mueller, 18, is a senior at Granite Falls High School. He plans to attend Western Washington University to study geology. He’s taking advanced classes this year and is a leader in several clubs.

Question: Tell me about the activities you’re involved in.

Answer: I’m the (Future Business Leaders of America) president. I started that my sophomore year and I’ve been to state every year. It’s really fun and there’s so much opportunity, especially for a place like Granite Falls because there’s not a whole lot of businesses here. It gives us a chance to experience the business world by going to Seattle or Spokane. I’m also the class vice president. I’m involved in decisions, but our class is pretty good about making sure that everyone gets a say. And then last year, my junior year, I started the Granite Falls High School Tech Club with a couple of my friends. There’s not a lot of technology available to us because we’re a rural school, so we’re giving students the opportunity to mess around with technology. We have a drone and film equipment through our advanced multimedia class.

Q: What does the Tech Club do?

A: We live stream home sporting events. I got that idea my freshman year after wrestling in Sultan. They were live streaming and I asked my friend, ‘Hey, could we do that?’ So we did some shopping and got grants and got the equipment we needed. We started live streaming on TigerSports.tv. Last year and the year before, we streamed graduation. That’s our biggest event because there are so many people who can’t make it. We’re planning on doing that again this year.

Q: What else are you involved in?

A: For sports, I run cross-country. I was captain this year. We won, I think, three meets. We went all the way up to Mount Baker and took home a plaque for first place. But probably the biggest thing I’ve done in high school is the advanced multimedia class. In eighth grade I edited videos. Then Jeremy (a friend) got into the advanced multimedia class and I got in my second semester. I just kind of edited video with my head down. I was really shy. Then sophomore year I made it onto the screen a few times, and toward the end of the year my face was a weekly occurrence. I started breaking out of my shell. This year, I’m trying to make sure everything goes well for next year when we’re gone. My friends and I were there when it started and we’ve been the driving force for four years.

Q: What do you do in the multimedia class?

A: Weekly video announcements. Basically all the things you’ll hear on the intercom in the morning, we’ll put that into a news segment. To start it off we’ll have a skit. It’s topical and supposed to be funny. And then we’ll have news and talk about the sports and events. (To see the video announcements, visit youtube.com/GFHSamm.)

Q: Are you hoping to turn your experience with multimedia into a career?

A: I’m looking more toward geology. In eighth grade, we took an earth science class. I learned that liking rocks could actually be a career. I’ve always liked rocks and if I go fishing I look for rocks in the riverbank and if I go hunting I’ll dig around a little bit. For my senior project, I’m expanding a personal business where I wrap the rocks that I find with wire and string them on a necklace. I am looking to go up to Western and pursue geology. In my off time they have an improv club called the Dead Parrots Society. I want to get into performing.

Q: What draws you to geology?

A: I’ve always been a big puzzle fan. Not in the sense of actual jigsaw puzzles. With geology, you’re trying to find a problem or find out what’s the source of this error. You go through lots of possibilities and once you find the right one, you have that feeling of satisfaction. We’re not that far from Oso, so I’d like to be involved in helping stop things like that from happening in the future. Not preventing the landslide, obviously, but hopefully preventing people dying.

Q: It sounds like you’re into the outdoors. What are your favorite activities?

A: Fly fishing. That’s something I’ve recently taken up. I’ve been fishing for salmon all my life, but I definitely like fly fishing because not only is it a challenge, there’s a certain art to it. You feel the timing and you really only know you’re doing a good job when you feel that.

Q: What else do you do for fun?

A: I’m a runner. I’m training for a half marathon, and that takes quite a bit of time. Other than that, wrapping the rocks and, like any other teenage boy, video games.

Q: Do you have a favorite type of rock to work with?

A: I tumble all of my own rocks. I like working with things that I find the most. In the Skykomish River, there’s a lot of jasper, which is a red rock. In the Skagit, there’s a lot of quartz, which is white or clear. But just watching it go from being knee-deep in the river to on somebody’s neck is a very good feeling.

Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.