2 Penncrest Students Win College-Sponsored National Merit Scholarships

MEDIA, PA — Two Penncrest High School students have been named winners of college-sponsored National Merit Scholarships in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Penncrest's winners are Sophia R. Donnelly and Gabriel F. Palmer.

Donnelly, of Media, earned her scholarship from Bowdoin College.

She plans to pursue a career in law.

Palmer, also of Media, was awarded the scholarship from Brigham Young University.

His probable career field is mathematics.

They are among 2,900 winners of college- and university-sponsored scholarships, and more than 6,930 high school seniors who will receive National Merit Scholarships for college undergraduate study worth nearly $26 million.

These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

High school juniors entered the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program when they took the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

Last fall, more than 16,000 semifinalists were named on a state-representational basis in numbers proportional to each state’s percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors.

Semifinalists were the highest-scoring program entrants in each state and represented less than one percent of the nation’s seniors.

To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, semifinalists first had to advance to the finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements.

Each semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions.

Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.

From the semifinalist group, over 15,000 met requirements for finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2025.