What happens when the family that you’ve counted on for everything – the one that has provided for every bit of your needs, from financial support, to school, to just general encouragement, gets sick… really sick?
Well, if you ask Tyler Ragsdale, our next Bootstraps recipient, you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do what is necessary to succeed. And that is just what Tyler has done!
An ACT of 31, a GPA of 4.03, all Honors classes, Varsity football for 4 years, Varsity wrestling for 4 years, Varsity Track and FIeld for 4 years, Youth Leadership Franklin, Habitat for Humanity, Spanish Club, the list goes on and on and frankly, makes me a bit tired. You would think this would be enough for our winner.
But it wasn’t. Due to a life-threatening illness with first his father and then his mother, Tyler found himself not only being a scholar-student, but as his counselor writes “assuming the responsibilities that normally only an adult would be expected to assume.” From keeping a house, to caring for his younger brother, to working at the family business after a day of school, Tyler did what was necessary to show that he would succeed.
And what’s next for this Bootstraps winner? We think you’ll not be surprised to hear that it includes pushing himself again – this time in Pre-Med.
