Timothy VanRiper, 18, has taken his love for music to far corners of the world, from Tanzania to China and back to Ann Arbor.

While VanRiper is an accomplished musician - he plays six instruments and has had the lead in five Pioneer High School musicals (did we mention he is fluent in Chinese?) - it is his service and kind heart that make him stand out.

“I’ve never met a more well-rounded, mature person at 18 years old than Tim,” said Douglas Brown, one of two people who nominated VanRiper for Young Person of the Year. “He seems to do everything and he has such a social conscience.”

And he doesn't turn down a chance to help, said Crystal Gadegbeku, the other person who nominated VanRiper. A physician at the University of Michigan hospitals, she's enlisted VanRiper to perform for holiday programs at the medical center and at the child care center. "He's just really special kid. He stands alone," said Gadegbeku, who knows VanRiper from church. "He's got great motives, his head is in the right place and he's got talent that he puts to use in creative ways."

VanRiper traveled to Biloxi, Miss., to help rebuild houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. He’s held benefit concerts to raise money for leukemia research and aid in China and Africa. He planned a benefit concern to raise money for earthquake victims in Haiti.

At 13, he traveled to Tanzania to help repair a rural medical clinic. He’s gone to a remote town in northeast China twice to help build a school and then teach English in the school. He’s been active with the nonprofit organization Free the Children, the largest children helping children organization in the world, he said.

“What struck me the most both times I was in China was students’ willingness to learn,” VanRiper said. “Kids would be looking in at the school, pressing their noses against the window, because they wanted to go to school but had to work to support their families…. It’s a cliché about doing things to make a difference when really, it’s our lives that get changed.”

Along the way, VanRiper brings his music.

But it’s just as important, he said, to serve in his backyard. He accompanies other students in Solo and Ensemble competitions. VanRiper is active with Zion Lutheran Church, where he plays bass guitar in the Praise Band in one Sunday service and sings in the choir for another. “A big part of growing up for using my music for my church,” he said.

And he reaches out to his neighborhood, literally. The morning after the PHS prom in early May, a 13-year-old boy from the neighborhood knocked on VanRiper’s door. “VanRiper had been up most of the night because of the prom, but this boy needed to talk,” Brown said. “Tim went outside with him to shoot some hoops so they could talk. I have never met anyone like him.” He is a role model: One middle school student VanRiper tutors even dressed up like him for Halloween.

VanRiper began taking piano lessons when he was 6 years old. At 10, he picked up the drums. Then guitar. And trumpet. By sixth grade, he landed a part in his middle school’s musical, “The King and I.” It was the first his mother, Sharon, knew her son could sing. When he arrived at PHS, he joined the choir and musical theater, appearing in eight musicals. He learned pipe organ for his church and this year decided to give tuba a try so he could be part of the PHS marching band his senior year.

Music, VanRiper said, “is a universal language. Joy can always be found in music. Any emotion, any mood, there’s always a song for it. You can use music to spread a message and be of service to people.”

VanRiper thinks big He said he wants to continue his music and humanitarian work with an eye toward studying international relations or political science when he goes to college in the fall, probably at the University of Michigan. “I’d like to get governments working together,” VanRiper said. “We’re suffering and I’d like to get the world going in the right direction.”

VanRiper did one more good deed, as far as Brown is concerned. A number of years ago, Brown, a family physician with a practice south of Cleveland, attended Zion Lutheran when he and his wife were in Ann Arbor visiting their adult son. He met the VanRipers, and Brown’s son became something of a big brother to the boys. Brown’s wife died three years ago and through VanRiper, his mother and Brown were re-connected. Now, they are engaged.