Aspire: Ella Ragle dreams of serving children in the health care industry

With commencement looming, Ella Ragle is ready to move on to bigger and better things.

“It feels so good. I’m just so ready to graduate,” said Ragle, whose educational path has shifted a number of times over the past few years due to changing personal needs. She has her eyes and heart set on a job working in pediatric health care.

Ragle grew up in the Tri-Cities and lived briefly in Ellensburg before moving to Spokane where she later enrolled at Mead High School. The excitement of that freshman year was disrupted by COVID-19, which tainted nearly every aspect of her life. Ragle’s diligent focus on academics at that time was rewarded with straight A’s and a welcome escape from the pandemic chaos.

“You know with COVID you couldn’t do anything … It was pretty hard to like, just get time out of the house,” Ragle said. “I would just do school and that’s how I spent my time.”

For her sophomore year, Ragle joined the North Star program, a Mead homeschool partnership that blends personalized curriculum with at-home learning. Among the highlights of the year was her essay and photographic entry in a HOSA-Future Health Professionals contest placing fourth statewide.

After returning to Mead High School as a junior, Ragle later transitioned to Aspire, a Mead guided learning program, with hopes of forming a closer bond with her school counselor.

“For some of my challenges, I needed that more of a personal level with the school,” said Ragle, who found a great fit with Aspire teacher and adviser Teri Inman, who has provided steady emotional support and leadership over the past year.

“She wanted a relationship with her teacher, somebody who knows her,” said Inman, who spoke highly of Ragle’s compassion and ambition.

“Ella is a brilliant student,” Inman said. “She’s just a good, steady student who helps other people as often as she can. She’s friendly and she’s inclusive and she’s one of my favorite students ever,” added Inman, who has been involved with Mead alternative programs for over 24 years and often encourages teens she works with to volunteer within the local community.

That strategy was successful for Ragle, whose love for children inspired her to serve as a tutor at North Star, where she has enjoyed helping young students with English skills since January.

“There (are) a couple of tables set up where you lead different groups of games that help the kids that are struggling with reading, to help them understand different word parts,” Ragle said. “I really like seeing the progress.”

She also assists with kindergarten through second grade classes at her church.

Ragle plans to attend community college in the near future, her dream job is one that combines mental health therapy with pediatrics. “Something in the health care field, but it’s kind of up for debate right now,” she said.