Junior Addison Rasmussen is notorious throughout the school for his intelligence and talent when it comes to technology.  

“He’s a good guy. He’s really intelligent when it comes to computers and he’s a really social person all in all,” junior Matthew Ng said.

Even before I really knew Rasmussen, a mutual friend of ours had once guided me his way when I was having technological difficulties with my school MacBook. To my astonishment, he kindly and effortlessly fixed them.   

What lead me to want to write a profile about him however, was not just his inner technological genius, but his entrepreneurial wit that led him to launching his own phone-screen business at age 17.

During our interview, I asked him how he obtained all of the materials he needed, and I was  impressed by the answer. I was expecting a dull story, but instead he explained that he’s partnered with a legitimate phone fixing company called iFixit.

“I’m actually registered as a business with them so I get business discounts. [Normally], people can’t really go to them for parts because they’re really overpriced, but essentially I get it for very, very little money,” Rasmussen explained

Rasmussen’s price ranges on the type of iPhone screen he is looking at, depending on the generation of the iPhone, though they typically range between $90-$150.

“I also replace batteries, [and] cameras, any part of any iPhone I can typically fix as long as it’s not the latest generation,” he said.

From the outside, this business appears to be a great way to earn spending money. However, that is not Rasmussen’s intention. He is currently working on a business deal with George Mason for full advertising rights in exchange for contributing 50% of his profits towards the robotics team.

“I love tech. I love working on computers, hardware, and software,… I love helping other people solve problems with stuff. I mean it’s just an ability, why not use it,” he said.

This interview revealed a different side of Rasmussen. Other than being brilliant with technology, he has also proved himself to be incredibly generous. He consistently helps others and voluntarily gives up his own well-earned profits for the benefit of his entire robotics team.

“He’s always there when anyone needs him and he’s really handy too. Whenever I’m having technology issues, I immediately start looking for Rasmussen,” said sophomore Emma Foley.  

Rasmussen’s fascination with technology started when he was young.

“My parents were not big in tech and they didn’t like me doing anything involved in tech, so they put up a lot of blocks when I was young and I just got good at getting around them,” he said.

From the beginning, Rasmussen has been a do-it-yourself kind of person, which led to his proficiency in general hardware, and eventually into fixing phones.

“I spent a lot of time messing with computers when I was young and then my aunt gave me an old, broken iPhone 5. [It had] no home button and the screen was cracked; I decided I may as well make this thing worth something, so I bought some parts, fixed it up, and I was surprised by how easy it was. I thought, hey, maybe I can make some money out of this,” he said.

Most high school students are still trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up. However, Rasmussen knows exactly where he’s going in life.

“When I grow up, I want to be an engineer,” he said. “I love doing work on computer hardware [and] I’d love to create my own computer hardware someday.”

Whenever high schoolers talk about what they like to do in their free time, I usually hear a lot of “I slept,” or “I watched Netflix all day,” but when I asked Rasmussen how he likes to spend his free time, he had a different answer.

“In my free time, I like doing random engineer projects. I like building things,” Rasmussen said. “In fact, for my room in my mom’s house, I actually had to build a wall in the basement so that I could have a private space and this was my first time I dealt with engineering.”

I certainly can’t say that I know any other high schoolers that have built their own bedroom wall.

When I asked Rasmussen how he would describe himself, he answered, “Outspoken… shy. But if I really believe in something, I will tell everyone about it.”  However when I asked him how he thought his friends would describe him, he took a long pause and answered, “Probably…. odd.”

“Addison is Raddison,” Foley said, making a pun out of Addison’s name.

I became more familiar with Rasmussen’s personality by joining him while he fixed junior Nick Upham’s iPhone screen during mustang block.

“Yeah, the adhesive that they used on your phone is really solid.” Rasmussen said, along with plenty of other things that I couldn’t understand

“Most repairs take under an hour, like this one. If they take more than an hour then something went wrong, with most phones at least. But with tablets it’s a different story because those take an hour just to get the screen off,” he explained.

“So what kinds of repairs do you do, Addison?” Upham asked him.

“Anything. That’s hardware at least,” Rasmussen answered.

“Water damage?” Upham asked.

“Yep, easy. People don’t realize how easy it is to fix water damage,” Rasmussen said.

“Is that where it’s supposed to go or did you just put it somewhere random for the photo?” Upham asked Rasmussen, referring to where he was positioning his tool on the iPhone.

“People don’t know. Like, you know, fake typing, people can just go like this, and like, oh so convincing,” Rasmussen joked while making fake typing gestures with his hands.

Conversations like these made me learn more about Rasmussen’s humorous and energetic spirit, something most people probably didn’t know about the quiet, technology oriented junior. Falls Church better look out, because they will be seeing Addison Rasmussen somewhere, whether it is through his contributions to the robotics team, his phone fixing advertisements, or perhaps even through the bedroom walls he builds.