- October 14, 2026
Flagler Palm Coast High School senior Jackson Magee has been named Flagler County’s only 2027 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist. He is one of over 16,000 semifinalists representing less than 1% of high school seniors.
Magee is in the running for about 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $24 million that will be offered next spring.
“It’s a great honor,” Magee told the Observer. “The most surprising thing to me was that I was the only one in the county to receive this honor. I know that I'm good at taking the SAT, but I didn't realize that I would be the only one to achieve such a thing.”
To enter the National Merit Scholarship Program, high school juniors must take the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The highest scoring students in each state are selected as semifinalists with the number proportional to the state’s percentage of U.S. graduating seniors.
About 15,000 national semifinalists will be selected in February as National Merit Scholarship Finalists, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Magee plans to major in mechanical engineering. He said he is applying to universities both in and out of state, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He said he has always been interested in how things work.
“I've passed through many phases of interest,” Magee said. “I've gone through architecture. I’ve thought about civil engineering and then settled on mechanical engineering. You can do so many things with mechanical engineering.”
Magee is in FPC’s International Baccalaureate program and is a member of the National Honor Society. He also plays alto saxophone in the FPC marching band and is a member of the Bulldogs’ boys weightlifting team.
He said he is planning to offer PSAT and SAT tutoring to FPC students.
