Student Spotlights: Riley Danler

At Primavera Online High School, we have countless talented, hard working students! In this series, we highlight one of our students.

With the recent law requiring all Arizona high school students to pass the Arizona Citizenship Test before graduating, one Primavera student has provided a way to help his fellow Panthers out. And spoiler alert: a free Egg McMuffin coupon comes with it!

Riley Danler, 11th grade, Citizenship Test Application designer

Primavera Online High School student Riley Danler, 16, created a citizenship practice test app, complete with actual questions from the test in multiple choice format and interactive gaming content. Riley wanted to create an app that doesn’t help you memorize, it’s a game people can actually enjoy, as Riley said.

“I knew that there were trivia game frameworks that could be licensed and developed from templates after seeing some of the things I had been looking at with my dad, so I thought it would be a cool project that I could do to help,” said Riley. “I think it’s cool to be able to find fun ways to study information that aren’t just monotonous memorization.”

The practice test app is supported not only by the Arizona Bar Foundation, but McDonald’s as well! Shortly after the launch of the application, McDonald’s announced they would be giving free Egg McMuffin coupons to all students who complete the citizenship practice test app at participating restaurants. The recent promotion of the application is more than Riley could have anticipated, as he stated.

“I was really surprised when I heard that they (McDonald’s) were going to be part of the program,” said Riley. “I really thought that was cool! I definitely wouldn’t have ever expected that kind of promotion for my app.”

Being a Primavera student, Riley believed that he was able to successfully create the application due to the flexibility of online schooling.

“Without the flexibility that Primavera offers, I don’t think I would ever have time or energy to be able to work on a lot of my different projects,” said Riley. “The teachers are always supportive too, and do an amazing job of helping me out with anything I ever need.”

Riley’s citizenship practice test app is available for download in the Apple Store. Participating McDonald’s restaurants are in Northern Arizona and parts of Phoenix. More details can be found at LawforKids.org. After graduating high school, Riley said he plans to continue creating more applications.

“I hope to go to college and study game design and programming,” said Riley. “While I’m in college, I plan to work on new games too. Hopefully those will have a good impact and can help people too.”