2 Phoenixville Residents Win National Merit Scholarships

PHOENIXVILLE, PA — Two Phoenixville residents have been selected as National Merit Scholarship winners.

They're among just 2,500 students nationwide to be chosen as a winner from an already elite pool of around 15,000 finalists.

Local winning scholars are listed below, along with their high school and probable career field:

• Isabella F. Calastri, Episcopal Academy, nursing
• Andrew R. Dychdala, Devon Preparatory School, biomedical engineering

A total of 104 students in Pennsylvania were named winners.

The selection process began when the roughly 1.6 million high school juniors who took the PSAT in 2017 were automatically entered into the competition. Semifinalists then had to complete a detailed scholarship application, including an essay, information on leadership and extracurricular activities, and more.

A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

The awards are related to, but separate from, the Corporate National Merit Scholarships announced in mid-April. About 7,600 students received a scholarship of some kind from the program.

The program awarded more than $31 million in scholarships to 2019 winners.