Guess what everyone!! Ramsey Solutions has a new personality that you may have heard on the air recently or maybe you have seen her on national television and media hits. Her story is pretty remarkable and explains why she is an excellent fit at Ramsey Solutions.
“Kristina Ellis is a bestselling author who believes no student should be burdened by student loans. She has helped thousands of students earn a debt-free education by sharing practical wisdom from her personal experience of earning over $500K in college scholarships.” (RamseySolutions.com)
At a young age, her father passed away after his battle with a cancerous brain tumor leaving behind Kristina, her mother, and brother. Having lost the head of the household, everyone had to fill the gap that was lost; adding stress and burdens that naturally came with the situation. Unfortunately, Kristina learned to mask those emotions and developed eating disorders and turned to cutting in middle school. She was about to take her final step to reliving herself from pain forever when her aunt randomly called her. The conversation wasn’t anything significant, but the two-hour phone conversation was enough to get her out of the dark mindset she was in and start living life.
On the first day of high school, her mother sat Kristina down and explained to her that “you have four years to figure out what you’re going to do with your life because you are on your own financially after graduation. You are not meant to live in poverty your whole life, and I know that if you work hard you can go to a great college and start fresh. The choices you make right now will impact you for the rest of your life.” Taking this to heart, Kristina would map out what her goals were for college.
Kristina knew she would have to get scholarships in order to afford college; especially her dream school of Vanderbilt University. She treated the scholarship application process as a part time job in her freshman year of high school. This hard work and dedication translated to success in other fields in her life. She won two Junior Olympics gold medals for gymnastics, raised enough money to travel to Haiti for mission’s work, and became one of the fastest runners in her high school. She was also entered into the Miss Indiana Junior Teen pageant and won. All this during her freshman year! By her Junior year, Kristina continued to apply for scholarships and position herself as scholarship-worthy by putting in over 1,000 hours of community service in high school, building up her gymnastics team to forty-five members and winning a cross country award.
Kristina was selected as one of Coca-Cola's National Scholars and awarded a $20,000 scholarship for college. Then she was contacted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Scholarship Foundation. They told her she had been selected as a recipient of their prestigious scholarship which offered a free ride to any school through her PhD. She attended Vanderbilt University for free with the Gates Scholarship and it also funded her master’s degree at Belmont University. All together Kristina was awarded over $500,000 in scholarships for college!
In college, Kristina’s spiritual life developed. She joined a non-denominational group where she learned how to develop a personal relationship with the Lord. “I fell in love with the Lord during college,” shares Kristina.
This scholarship mentor encourages students to believe in themselves and their potential. Her message inspires students to understand that, even if the odds are stacked against them, they can overcome their circumstances and achieve their dreams! You can check out her many articles on Ramsey Solutions and also her books “Confessions of a Scholarship Winner” and “How to Graduate Debt Free.”