(Photo provided) Riley Curfman is a Ravenswood High School senior involved in cross country, show choir, robotics and esports at her school. She also serves as a senior patrol leader in Scouts and a strategist and builder on the robotics team. She also runs a crochet business, selling her amigurumi creations on Instagram.

RAVENSWOOD — Ravenswood High School senior Riley Curfman has built a resume that would impress even the most seasoned adult. She is a cross-country runner, a show choir star, an esports team member, a budding entrepreneur, an award-winning robotics competitor and the Kootaga District’s first female Eagle Scout.

“I just like being able to do different things and be involved in different things,” Curfman said. “Kind of a jack of all trades, I guess you would say.”

Although Curfman is involved in many activities at her school, she said there is one that she considers more than just an extracurricular.

“My main passion is show choir,” she said.

Curfman said she started dancing at 4 years old. Her mother, Angela Curfman, said it “seemed to be her destiny.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman takes part in the Ravenswood Senior Sunrise 2025 in August. The traditional event has seniors from Ravenswood High School gather at Riverfront Park at sunrise on the morning of their first day to celebrate their senior year.

“She was just that little kid that would dance all over the house,” Angela said. “And I said, ‘Well, that seems to be your thing’. And I thought it would be her primary focus. But then she was like, ‘No, I like this too, and I like this too, and I like this too, and I like this’. So we’re like, Okay, we’ll just do everything. So we just kind of went along. It’s been a wild ride raising this kid”

Curfman said she has also enjoyed singing most of her life, which led to her joining the choir in sixth grade.

“I’ve always enjoyed singing,” Curfman said. “But with choir, I started in sixth grade, and it kind of evolved. And then whenever I reached high school, I joined the show choir, and it kind of put the two together.”

Curfman joined both the concert choir and the Ravenswood High School Rave Revue show choir when she reached high school, allowing her to expand both of her performance skills.

In concert choir, she sings Alto 2 and describes it as more focused on “advanced songs where it’s just a few people singing.” She said the show choir combined both her love of singing and dancing, with performances structured around various themed numbers.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman holds up her target after receiving the 2023 Top Shot Award at Camp Kootaga. Curfman earned the award for having the highest scoring target of any scout for the duration of the week-long summer camp, where she scored a 49 out of a possible 50. She defended her title the following year, scoring a perfect 50, and again in 2025 with another perfect score.

“Everyone’s involved in all of the numbers,” Curfman said. “It’s never like just one person. There’s soloists, but the other people are dancing around. They’re doing something active.”

She said a show choir competition consists of six different numbers centered around a theme.

“It’s basically telling a story through the songs that you choose,” Curfman said.

Things begin with an opener introducing the team’s theme. They then perform a more fast-paced second number that leads to a slowdown for the ballad.

“Which is showcasing our singing abilities, where we are standing still,” Curfman said. “We don’t dance during that number.”

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman is a senior on the Ravenswood High School cross country team and said she has decided to focus more on this sport as one of her primary activities this year.

After that performance, there are individual numbers for the girls and boys and the show concludes with the entire team performing a tap dance number.

“Not every group does tap dancing, but that’s kind of our specialty,” Curfman said. “That’s like our big finish, basically.”

She said last year’s competition centered around Broadway and 42nd Street in New York.

“And so this year our theme is, well, I’m not supposed to say that,” Curfman said. “We can’t disclose too much.”

She said her favorite part is finally getting to perform the numbers in front of a crowd and seeing their reactions.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman stands next to the Ravenswood High School robotics team’s robot during the spring 2025 competition season.

“It’s always really cool to just, like, know that you’re kind of not blowing people away, but kind of doing something cool,” Curfman said.

Being a senior, Curfman said she finds her final year in show choir particularly meaningful.

“I’m definitely feeling it because it … has been something that I’ve been involved in since my freshman year, and it’s been the better part of my life where it lasts a lot of the school year and ends right at the end,” she said.

Curfman is heavily involved in many activities and clubs in school and credits her brother, Cade Curfman, as her inspiration to join many of them.

“My brother ran cross country, and he also did robotics,” Curfman said.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman celebrates in March after being named the Best Performer of the Ravenswood Rave Revue at the 2025 Fairfield Crystal Classic competition.

Curfman said her entire family has always been supportive of one another, but she had a particularly close bond with her brother growing up.

“We were kind of like best friends and we still are,” Curfman said. “We talk pretty much every other day, even though he’s up at college.”

She said she got to watch her brother compete at the world robotics competition in Dallas his senior year.

“I got to watch from the sidelines and see everything that he did with that. And whenever I got to high school, I joined the robotics team.” she said.

She said every year VEX Robotics will release a new game design and robot specifics for teams to build and train with.

“My role is, like, builder and strategist,” Curfman said.

She said teamwork is vital, as each student brings different skills to the team.

“There’s someone that’s the designated coder, someone that is the designated driver. There are builders, strategists. … Everybody works together as a group, as a team, in order to accomplish that,” Curfman said.

She said she has big ambitions for her team this year.

“I’m hoping to make it to Worlds this year,” she said. “I would really like to – I’ve got a really good team, and we haven’t been to any competitions yet, but we’re still building our bot and doing all the things we need to get ready.”

Outside of school, Curfman is a member of Ravenswood Troop 43 and credits her brother again as her inspiration for finally joining.

“Scouts has always been a part of my life, since I was little,” she said, recalling years as a “tag along” with her brother before girls could join.

She said when the rules changed in 2019 and girls were finally accepted into scouting, “I jumped in immediately, and… it just took off from there.”

Curfman quickly emerged as a leader, eventually becoming a senior patrol leader.

“I was elected the senior Patrol Leader of the troop, which is basically the person who plans all the meetings… and kind of leads everything,” she said.

Her duties include organizing and conducting weekly troop meetings, organizing the troop’s community service projects and helping with troop activities to provide rank advancement and leadership opportunities.

“I’ve always enjoyed, like, taking the lead on different situations. And whenever it comes to scouts, being able to lead the meetings and everything – it was nice … because I could see what different people needed to advance in rank, I would take charge to talk to the adults and the scouts and see what needed to happen to achieve that,” she said.

She said being involved in scouts has taught her leadership, responsibility and adaptability, and has given her a love for adventure and service.

She has also become a skilled marksman while in the scouts, receiving the 2022 BSA Camp Kootaga Top Shot Award for Archery, the 2023 BSA Camp Kootaga Top Shot Award for Riflery, the 2024 BSA Camp Kootaga Top Shot Award for Riflery and the 2025 BSA Camp Kootaga Top Shot Award for Staff Riflery competition.

Curfman said she wouldn’t describe herself as a calm person – “I’m always a little shaky” – but also said she has learned to dial in when she needs to make that perfect shot.

“I am thinking about the techniques and what it takes to do the perfect shot, basically, like breath control and like steadying yourself for the shot,” she said.

In September, Curfman earned the rank of Eagle Scout after completing 21 merit badges.

She wrote a proposal and presented a service project idea to the City of Ravenswood Board of Parks and Recreation Committee to obtain approval and funding and then organized and led the Ravenswood Trail System Bench Project with redesign, building, hiking out and setting of 11 Leopold style benches on STAR Plastics and throughout the Major Kevin Clegg trail systems in Ravenswood.

Curfman was the first female to earn the Eagle Scout Rank in West Virginia’s Kootaga District, which includes Jackson, Wood, Wirt, Roane, Ritchie and Calhoun counties, and the communities of Belpre, Little Hocking and Coolville in Ohio.

“Being the first female to reach the Eagle Scout rank in the Kootaga District is something I’m very proud of. Scouts has been a huge part of my life and has helped to shape me into who I am today,” Curfman said. “I want other girls to see what I have done and know that they can do it, too. I’d like to look back someday and be the first of many girls to go this far in scouting. I truly hope that everyone gets as much out of the program as I have.”

Curfman has plans to attend West Virginia University after high school and then enter into the medical care field. She said she intends to earn her bachelor of science in nursing in four years, then gain hospital experience for one to two years before returning to specialize further.

“I want to go back to school to become a nurse anesthetist, which is the nurse that is under the anesthesiologist,” she said.

Curfman said she also has goals to become a travelling nurse to reflect her love of travel and helping others.

“I really want to travel a lot whenever I’m older. … I want to go everywhere, see everything, do all the things, and basically experience all the experiences,” Curfman said.

Curfman has accomplished everything she has while also living with a rare genetic disorder called tuberous sclerosis, which causes benign tumor growth in various organs.

“I don’t let it stop me,” she said.

She said the condition has meant living with chronic kidney disease and moderate to severe hearing loss.

“And I have tumors on my brain, which are benign. They don’t do anything. They’re just there,” Curfman said. “Kidney disease can be linked to hearing loss, and I have bilateral hearing loss… I wear hearing aids.”

She said she is a rarity with the disease.

“It causes severe autism in most cases, but I’m a rarity where I didn’t really get that … I’m actually part of a case study,” she said.

Curfman said these obstacles have never defined her. When asked about what keeps her going, she referenced a favorite quote by the Roman poet Ovid: “Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim.”

“It means, ‘Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you’ and that kind of sums up my life a little bit with everything I’ve been through throughout my life. And so that kind of resonates with me” Curfman said.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman, left, and her brother Cade Curfman, on a family vacation, climbing the Via Ferrata at Nelson Rocks in Pendleton County. Curfam said her brother has been her best friend their whole lives.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman, left, aims at a target during Adventure Weekend at Camp Kootaga in July 2014. Curfman, who was 6 at the time, would later go on to receive a perfect score during a sharpshooting competition at the camp in 2024. She said attending camps like this with her brother when she was young led to her future achievements.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman poses for a senior photo in August while attending the WVU Governor's Honors Academy in Bridgeport.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman during a kayak trip with Ravenswood Troop 43 in August 2023. The group made their way down Mill Creek in Jackson County, ending in Millwood.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman runs a small business crocheting custom plush animals, known as amigurumi, which she sells primarily through her Instagram under the name “Riley’s Crochet.” She said she first learned to crochet from her grandmother.

(Photo provided) Riley Curfman runs a small business crocheting custom plush animals, known as amigurumi, which she sells primarily through her Instagram under the name “Riley’s Crochet.” She said she first learned to crochet from her grandmother.