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Transcript
My name is Andrew A. Burgher. I am 15 years old.
My name is DaMon Radwansk. I’m 16 years old. We interviewed Tyrone Smith on July 30th, 2015.
My childhood was truly blessed. I’m the youngest out of six kids. My parents was married for 55 years to let do them part, and that was a big thing for me to be able to have my mother and father in my life and to be able to learn from all my older siblings. And I’ve learned so much from them that I feel really, truly blessed.
My mentors were my mother and father and my brothers and sisters. My oldest sister was like my mom, because that’s how far apart we are. Everybody thought I was her child. My sister Carla is a costume designer, she does Broadway shows. At the age of seven, I knew how to sew, dye clothes, cut out patterns. My oldest brother, Carl, he did heavy construction. He’s done the subways, the bridges. He taught me electrical, plumbing, landscaping. My second oldest brother, Jeff, he was the Lewis Chapman Award winner. He was scout of the year. He taught me how to respect people and show pride in yourself. My brother Derek, he was an Eagle Scout. He taught me how to protect myself and taught me to have self respect.
My father, he talked to me in parables. You know, when people say, oh, what’s your role models and things like that I can say is my father. One thing my father told me, which I would like to tell you: you’re going to make mistakes in life. I just want you to make half the mistakes I did. When it comes to grown-ups, he goes “Shh!” God gave you two ears and one mouth. You need to listen twice as much, especially when you’re around somebody older than you. And it’s about respect now, which we are losing that today. These people have been on this Earth longer than us. They’ve paved the way for us. Society has changed where elders was almost like kings and queens. They were respected because they’ve been on this earth for so long that they see that. It’s flipped now. The children are treated like the elders and the elders are treated like children, and it shouldn’t be like that. I know for a fact that “respect my elders” is one of the things that I will continue in pursuit of doing because if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here now. My goal in life is to stay out-of-the-box, to be different, to be a leader. I’ve always felt that for me to be different, to stand out, and sometimes you get criticized for that. But in the long run, it really will help you out in your life.
My unique experience is being in the Boy Scouts. I’ve done whitewater rafting, caving, mountain climbing. I’ve been horseback riding ever since I was 7, you know, being able to do those things is a tremendous thing and a lot of people don’t really look at it that way. The experience of being in a Boy Scouts going, you know, summer camp and, you know, living out in nature and enjoying it, it’s just- it was wonderful for me. My junior year in high school, it hit me. I was getting Division One letters from schools all over the country. I played defensive back and was good. And I realized my grades. I did fine on tests, but I didn’t do my homework. Only did my homework when it came to sports, kept my grades up. But when sports were over, my grades went down, and by my junior year, when I realized that here I go busting my behind trying to take all these extra classes to pull up my overall four year grade point average. which I didn’t do. So that’s why I end up having to going to a junior college.
When I came back home from winning the national championship from College, I was truly blessed and got a job working at WPXI. I actually helped John Fedko start the Fedko zone and the Skylights. Me and him used to do commercials together. I’ve been gone for almost 15 years and, you know, to be able to live in different States and to come back home and see the changes is dramatically still the same but different. I see less crime in our area. I see less jobs, which I do not like, and my goal is to come back home. One established what I want to do for business and be able to teach young kids how to be entrepreneurs, have them love their self for who they are and don’t fall into the system.
Don’t fall into that game of “the stereotypic person.” Teach these kids who they are, where we come from, teach them how to learn about stocks, CD’s, bonds, how to write up a business proposal, how to do grant writing. What motivates me is seeing other people succeed. My goal is to network. My goal is to help other people get to where they need to. You’re going to be told no, you’re going to get more no’s than yes’s, and that is the key of life. Looking at the no’s as a learning lesson and accepting the yes’s with both hands and grasping onto it and run with it.