I’m so happy to introduce you to our newest Make48 team member, Lyra Thompson! Lyra is working a few hours a week as a guest blog writer. We were so impressed by her leadership and communication skills at the Kansas State School for the Blind competition. Tom Gray personally offered her a position to further develop her journalism skills and bring in a new perspective of the Maker and STEAM world. We’re very excited to have Lyra jump onboard and looking forward to giving her some real-world experience on her career pathway journey. If you see Lyra at one of our events, please say hello! - Cassandra Munoz
Hi! I would like to introduce myself as a new part-time member of the Make48 team!
First of all, who am I? My name is Lyra Thompson and I am going to be writing a few blog posts for Make48, so you’ll hear more from me soon.
There were a few steps that led me to getting this job. The first and biggest reason is because I was a participant on the show! I was on team Little Red Hens at the Season 6 City Series episode that took place at Kansas State School for the Blind late last year. It was an incredible and fun experience and I’m so excited to finally watch the episode this week.
About a month ago, I was contacted about going on a radio show - along with Make48 CEO Tom Gray - to talk about my experience being in the competition. You can listen to that interview here.
While I was there, Tom learned about my interest in journalism and mentioned that Make48 had some part-time work available writing for the blog. One thing led to another, emails were sent back and forth, and now I’m sitting at my desk in my bedroom, writing this post.
But that’s enough about how I got the job. Let me tell you a little bit more about me.
I’m 16 years old and a junior in high school. I live in Edwardsville, Kansas. I am the youngest of three children, and my two older siblings, Dominick and Rebekah, are 21 and 27 years old respectively. I also have a calico kitten named Alya who’s almost a year old (she turns one on March 20th.)
In school, I am involved in many different clubs and activities, including Scholars Bowl, Science Olympiad, newspaper, choir, and theater. I am also a member of the National Honors Society.
Outside of school, my hobbies include reading, writing, singing, playing video games, and playing board games. I read all the time and don’t have enough time for all the books I want to eventually read. Some of my favorite video games are Minecraft and The Sims franchise, and I have a wide range of board games that I enjoy, so it’s hard to narrow it down.
After high school, I plan to go to college and major in journalism, because I want to be an author and journalist in the future. I’ve always had a passion for writing. I’ve known I’ve wanted to be an author from a young age, but my specific interest in journalism is more recent. I love writing fiction, and my dream is to get published someday.
That’s a little bit about me. I’m excited about and thankful for the opportunity I have to be able to write for Make48!