ROYERSFORD PA – Two local students were named Wednesday (May 7, 2025) as recipients of corporate-sponsored merit scholarship awards, distributed through a program of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Each will receive a $2,500 college scholarship from the corporation’s own funds. The pair is among more than 6,930 “academic champions” whom the corporation says, by the end of July, will win scholarships worth a total of about $26 million.
The students are:
- Jonathan C. Odike of Chester Springs PA, who attends The Hill School in Pottstown. He expects to major in computer science; and
- Gina Singh of Phoenixville PA, who attends Spring-Ford Area High School in Royersford. She plans to major in investment banking.
Singh and Odike join 2,500 merit scholar designees who, the corporation notes, “were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists.” Finalists in each state are “judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies,” it adds.
The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors, it reports.
The latest award-winning students represent the second of four waves of scholarship announcements. The first was released April 23, when about 830 recipients of corporate-sponsored awards were named. Two others will follow on June 4 and July 14, when about 3,600 college-sponsored merit scholarship winners will be announced.
The corporation is based in Evanston IL. It is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance, and was founded in 1955 specifically to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of scholarships offered each year are underwritten by about 280 independent corporate and college sponsors.
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Education logo photo from Getty Images on Unsplash+, used under license
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