Ariana Rieder: Thriving outside of the comfort zone

When Ariana Rieder first visited Radford in 2020, she was still recovering from injuries she’d suffered as a passenger in a recent car crash – both hips broken, a concussion and a back fracture that required her to wear a brace as she toured campus.

“It’s been a journey,” said Rieder, a New Columbia, Pennsylvania, native who, as a Highlander, went on to study finance and accounting in the Davis College of Business and Economics and will graduate next month.

Freshman year, however, she still had some recuperating to do: “It was a really long recovery period.”

“The second year, my life completely changed. I got involved with everything. At one point, I was part of five organizations, all in one semester,” she said.

“Getting out of my comfort zone pushed me to heal a little bit more, and being around like-minded people, especially people that had aspirations similar to mine.”

Rieder joined the Student Managed Investment Portfolio Organization (SMIPO) and held four offices, including that of president.

On the side, she also earned her license to sell insurance before she was 20, and for the past two years, she has worked part-time for World Financial Group. After graduation, that job will become full-time.

“I help people with their retirement, and we work in different areas like debt management, cash flow, taxes. It’s the number one field that has the biggest amount of money in it,” Rieder said. “But outside of that, I enjoy helping people.”