GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Riley Ellison is a senior at Great Crossing High School (GCHS) and “great” is an appropriate adjective for her high school career.
It starts in the classroom, where she has a 4.2 GPA. Her Advanced Placement Literature teacher Kristy Johnson raves about her as a student, saying, “[She] is genuinely curious and wanting to push her thinking. It’s pushing others in the classroom as well to piggyback on that or connect with the work in a different way. It’s just been neat to see a really bright kid standing out among other really bright kids. I’ve been teaching for 22 years and there’s a real loss of curiosity that’s happening among kids now, but not her, not Riley.”
Riley attended the prestigious Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs and plans on a career in business, saying it’s where she can do the most good for herself and for others.
The senior is also a star athlete, excelling on the elite Warhawk volleyball team and being good enough to play the sport at the Division I level next year at Queens University in Charlotte. She’s been playing since she was in 4th grade.
Ellison said, “My mom played in college and she loved it and I would hear stories about her experiences and what she did. She got me to play, and I just loved it from the get-go.”
She added, “I love to win. But I also like being with my teammates and getting passionate over it. I just really enjoy it.”
When asked what makes volleyball her sport, Ellison said, “I am athletic and that helps, but I think I (also) see the court in a very different way. I see all the parts of it and what needs to be done to get the point and I think that’s really helpful to a team when you have someone like that who can understand all the moving parts and where the ball needs to go to get the point.”
Athletics have helped shape Ellison. “I don’t think I would be the same person at all if I hadn’t played sports. I understand people, I know how to read them. I think my social skills are so much different from people who don’t play sports because I’ve had tough interactions with people, confrontations, things that are negatives but have come (out) positively because I’ve learned from them and I’ve learned how to be a good person and be a good teammate through it.”
Being a good teammate also applies to her sense of service to her community. She coordinated a canned food drive for the Amen House, works as a peer mentor with the GCHS Suicide Prevention Program and volunteers with Gathering Place Mission Meal Service. As a junior, she organized the return of the Great Crossing Homecoming Dance after it had been canceled since COVID, putting the entire thing together in just three weeks!
All this success has come amid personal tragedy. Her younger brother Finley passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was he was just three and a half months old. The family organized a 5K Race in his honor and it has become a fixture in Scott County, raising over $200,000 for SIDS research over the last 11 years.
She said,“He died in 2013 and my parents were avid runners. They love to run. Our neighbors [said] we’ll have a race in his honor, just a onetime deal. Just to kind of say, he was here; he died. Then we had the race and people loved it: the whole town showed up, people brought food trucks, it was insane. We are able to use that to still remember my brother every year and I personally realized doing good things for others can change their life. That really struck me that you never know who you could reach with very small acts.”
That desire to help others is one that Johnson respects. She said, “In 5 to 10 years, I see her in a leadership role. I think she has a strong drive to be a woman’s woman, standing up for other women and providing information in a way that empowers them and gives them the information and drive to improve themselves. Having students like Riley, it just gives us hope for the future that there can be change, there will be leaders, there will be people improving our world.”
That provides an excellent summary of why Riley Ellison is a deserving Spectrum News 1 High School Scholar.