Some students spend college searching for their calling. Abigail Ramaley found hers in third grade.
A member of the National Online Chapter, Ramaley was recently named one of the winners of Saint Vincent College's Wimmer Scholarship Competition, a four-year, full-tuition award valued at more than $188,000 earned through a rigorous academic exam. While remaining steadfast in her academics, she is also a second-degree black belt in martial arts and has written two novels.
What connects those accomplishments is a range of skills Ramaley has carried since childhood, hinging mostly on discipline. And it is discipline that she plans on using to eventually serve her country at the highest court of law.
Having the Discipline to Finish What You Start
Ask Ramaley how she accomplishes so much, and the answer keeps coming back to one word. Discipline runs through everything she does, sharpened over years of martial arts training that carried her to her second-degree black belt.
"Discipline has been a huge part of who I am and who I try to be," she says.
That is also clear on the page. Ramaley published her first novel, The Wisher's Granddaughter, an upper-middle-grade fantasy, in the fall of 2023, and finished a second, The Secrets of Knusaijax, this past summer. She wrote much of it while still in school and juggling multiple after-school activities, and she is now weighing agents and publishers.
Finishing a project like that while balancing everything else is, for Ramaley, proof of a belief she holds firmly about how people spend their hours.
"Nobody should ever have to say that they don't have enough time to do something they want to or ought to do," she says.
Martial Arts Instructor Teaches More Than Technique
When Ramaley names the people who made her who she is, she begins at home before landing on the person who first taught her the power of true focus.
"Aside from my parents, who have been absolutely phenomenal in teaching me to be where I am today, my martial arts instructor is a tremendous role model in my life," she says.
That mentorship reached well beyond technique, shaping how Ramaley carries herself and how she sees a project through to the end.
"She has helped instill that discipline in me, both in actions and in character, that enabled me to complete… past and future projects as well," she says.
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Climbing to a Higher Calling
Ramaley can trace her ambition to elementary school, when a lesson on the nation's founding document lit a spark she never lost.
"It was third grade, I remember it well, when my mom convinced two lawyers to come down from Philadelphia to talk to my co-op class about our nation's Constitution and the mock trial that we were going to perform in Pittsburgh at the end of the semester," she says.
The details of that year have stayed with her, and so has the certainty it produced.
"I was called to serve our country through the lens of our law," she says.
That calling now has a roadmap. Ramaley is pursuing bachelor's degrees in political science and Christian philosophy, with a minor in business, at Grove City College, on an accelerated three-year timeline. From there, her sights climb higher.
"After graduation, I plan to put myself in a position from which I can earn a spot in my dream law school, Harvard Law, and earn my juris doctorate in constitutional law," she says.
Her long-term vision reaches all the way to the top, without losing sight of the life she wants to build alongside it.
"From there, I could act as a lawyer in our nation's district and state courts and, eventually, in a spot in our nation's judicial Capitol, in front of our cherished Constitution, as a justice on our nation's Supreme Court, alongside both maintaining a family and writing, as I always have, both historically and purely for joy," she says.
One verse in the Bible has particularly stuck with Ramaley, which encapsulates her spirit and drive. She points to Isaiah 6:8: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'"
Ramaley's ready to answer the call.
Leadership as Societal Necessity
Ramaley's definition of leadership is grounded less in ambition than in a sense of order, and of everyone having a part to play.
"Leadership is the natural fulfillment of society," she says.
She sees it as a structural necessity, present at every level of human life.
"If there is a body, the body must have a head, whether it is nations and government, a family and parents, or a community and a leader, leadership is crucial to the functioning of civilization," she says.
And for each person, that means recognizing and rising to the role you are suited for.
"The act of leadership, then, for the individual, is his or her realization and fulfillment of the gifts that he or she has been given and his or her realization of the place that he or she is called to assume in society, major or minor," she adds.
Hearing directly from a range of leaders through the NSLS gave that philosophy a living reference point. The program's Speaker Broadcasts, in particular, showed her how varied leadership can look in practice.
"I know that there are many different types of leaders, but actually seeing them, learning from them, was a tremendous experience in seeing how they all play together," she says.
As she prepares for her first college semester, wrapping up summer classes and work, Ramaley knows the pace ahead will be demanding. She wouldn't have it any other way.
"There is something satisfying in working hard, and I wouldn't trade that for the world," she says.
Abigail's Advice for Future Leaders
Ramaley's advice grows straight out of how she sees the world: everyone has a role, and leadership is knowing when yours is the one that's needed.
"Every single person in this world has a niche, a place that they were made to fill because of the characteristics and personalities that they have been given," she says.
The takeaway, she explains, is that leadership isn't a constant performance but a matter of readiness and judgment.
"To be a leader, you don't have to be a leader in every situation; you just need to have the wisdom to know when your leadership is required and have the tools and courage to step up."
Meet Grace Mueller next, a top graduate at Valley City State University who also brings a passion for writing and a strong purpose to serve others in everything she does.
