Two Polk County students receive $2,500 National Merit Scholarships

Two students from Polk County are recipients of $2,500 National Merit Scholarships.

The organization selected 2,500 designees from among more than 15,000 finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program, according to a news release.

The students were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who assessed their academic records, test scores on the Preliminary SAT, contributions to school and community activities; essays and recommendations from a high school official, the release said.

The two local recipients are Nicholas A. Kieffer of Lakeland, a graduating senior at Bartow High School International Baccalaureate, and James A. Lovely of Lakeland, a graduating senior at All Saints Academy in Winter Haven.

Lovely, 18, said that he earned a 1,590 score on the SAT, a nearly perfect score, and graduates with a weighted 4.83 grade-point average. He will attend Georgia Tech and plans to study chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Lovely ran cross country and track in high school and was vice president of the Key Club. He also participated in the Commissioner’s Academic Challenge, an annual knowledge competition. Lovely joined a Polk County all-star team that won the Division I title the past two years.

He received a scholarship for his role on the winning team. Lovely said he was also awarded a scholarship from the Bailey Family Foundation, which supports students in West-Central Florida.

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“I'm definitely very, very thankful,” Lovely said. “It’ll definitely help continue my education into the future, which I'm very excited about. And I'm definitely I'm proud of myself for putting in the work to achieve it. But I'm definitely still very grateful for the teachers and my family and everybody who has supported my education thus far to make it possible.”

Kieffer’s probably career field is listed as chemistry in the news release. He declined an interview request.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.