Kelsea Ballerini Gives Amazing Gift to Her High School

Even though country superstar Kelsea Ballerini didn’t graduate from Central High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, she thinks of it as her alma mater. That’s why the season 27 coach on “The Voice” has been so generous with the school since becoming a huge star. Her latest gift came in the form of a big check.

On June 6, 2025, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Ballerini donated $10,000 to the school’s foundation, which had raised two-thirds of the $30,000 needed for a digital sign, but needed help meeting its goal. The school will now be able to purchase and install a large electronic sign out front, which is just the latest way Ballerini has contributed to Central High School.

Kelsea Ballerini Called Central High School ‘One of the Most Special Places in the World to Me’

The Central High School foundation has been selling personalized bricks to donors for $150 or $300 each, depending on the size, which will pave a path — called the Bobcat Walk — to its football field. The digital sign, the foundation said, will “enable us to more easily get information out to our school and our community.”

The high school still holds a special place in Ballerini’s heart, even though she moved to Nashville with her mom at age 15, after finishing her sophomore year.

Ballerini performed a special concert at the high school in 2017 and told Knox News at the time, “There’s just certain places I think that you really feel connected to in your life as you grow up, and those two years that I spent at Central were just, like, character defining and career defining.”

“It’s one of the most special places in the world to me,” she said.

Kelsea Ballerini Also Gave Students & Staff Free Tickets to Her 2023 Concert

In 2023, Ballerini said on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that her freshman and sophomore years at Central High School were the “two most impressionable years of my life,” recalling how she was in glee club and “had a really beautiful friend group for the first time.”

That same year, she kicked off her concert tour with a “Homecoming Concert” in Knoxville. She surprised the students at Central High School one day during morning announcements by beaming in with a special announcement, letting them know that she was giving two tickets for the show to all of the students and staff, as seen in the video above.

Central High School Executive Principal Danielle Rutig told local station WATE at the time that Ballerini’s dedication to giving back to the school was inspiring to other students.

He explained, “I had a student who came up to me today, carrying his guitar case, and he was like, ‘This is like my dream come true. She is who I aspire to be, and that just shows me I have an opportunity to have that happen as well,’ so it’s just that ultimate dream that when we put our mind to our dreams anything can happen.”