Books, banners, boats and National Merit Scholarships

CLEARWATER, Florida – They are honor students and athletes.

Volunteers in the community and student ambassadors at school.

One is a champion sailor who has competed in the national and international regattas in places like Canada, Argentina, and Poland

One is a state champion cheerleader. There is an Eagle Scout who won a district championship in the high jump. There is a three-sport athlete who was voted homecoming king.

They have grade point averages north of 4.0 and PSAT and SAT scores that are the envy of nearly every high school student who has taken the tests.

They are four students who graduated this spring from Clearwater Central Catholic High School, united by the same unwavering drive to excel academically.

And that drive led them to this: a National Merit Scholarship.

Paige Daily, Nancy Dolson, Ian Galloway, and Jan Mistak are among the 6,870 winners nationwide out of the 50,000 students from the Class of 2025 who qualified. The scholarship covers nearly all college costs. All four attended CCC with the help of a private school scholarship managed by Step Up For Students.

“Having college paid for is huge, and the recognition is nice,” Paige said. “You work hard (academically), and it’s nice for people to appreciate that.”

Paige will attend Florida State University and major in finance.

Nancy, CCC’s valedictorian, was accepted to the University of Florida’s honors program and will major in construction management.

Ian is headed to Florida State, where he will major in biomedical engineering.

Jan (pronounced Yon) will major in physics and continue his sailing career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Since 2021, CCC has identified high-academic-achieving freshmen and, using the Ray Dass college-readiness program, guided them through the steps necessary to achieve a National Merit Scholarship. Ray Dass includes preparation for the PSATs and SATs with live, online tutoring.

CCC has had at least one National Merit Scholarship winner every year since then. It can add to that total next spring, since five members of the Class of 2026 are National Merit Qualifiers.

Meet the 2025 winners:

Paige Daily

Paige and her teammates on the cheerleading team raised a state championship banner after claiming the Class 1A title in Competitive Cheer in January. Banners are a family thing. Her dad, Chris, and his brothers won state soccer titles for CCC.

“It was cool to see her put a banner up in the gym with me and her uncles,” Chris said.

Paige was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She and her parents moved back to Pinellas County when she was in the eighth grade. She found herself surrounded by strangers during the start of her freshman year at CCC, but quickly set about changing that.

Paige played lacrosse as a freshman and joined the cheerleading team as a sophomore. She was a member of Peer Ministry; Water 4 Mercy, which raises funds to help bring sustainable water to rural villages in sub-Saharan Africa; and Morning Star Amigos, where she spent time with students at Morning Star Catholic School, which educates children with unique abilities in Pinellas Park.

“We appreciate them and recognize them,” Paige said.

She was also involved in the Fashion Upcycle Club, which collects and donates formal dresses to students in Pinellas County who can’t afford a dress to wear to their prom.

“When I came here, I really pushed myself to try a lot of new things, things I would never have done before, because I would be too afraid of failing, and I would rather just stay in my bubble than push myself,” Paige said. “But it just helped me be a lot more confident and want to try new things and experience new things, and that's kind of what high school is all about.”

Nancy Dolson

There’s nothing like a sibling rivalry to drive ambition, especially for the youngest in the family. Nancy’s older brother Richard was an Eagle Scout. Nancy became an Eagle Scout. Richard attends the University of Florida. Nancy was accepted into UF’s honors program and will attend the university on a National Merit Scholarship.

“Every time I do something, I try to surpass him a little bit,” Nancy said.

Nancy was one of the first girls to join the Boy Scouts when it became coed in 2019. She became the first female in her Boy Scout district to achieve Eagle Scout when she refurbished the outside entrance to the St. Vincent De Paul Community Kitchen in Clearwater. She built four earth boxes, repaired existing planters, and pressure-washed the area.

“It was pretty gloomy,” said Nancy, who helps serve breakfast there on Sunday mornings.

Nancy was captain of the cross-country team as a senior. She was the president of the Student Ambassador club and the student chaplain for Peer Ministry. She helped start CCC’s Math Club and was a member of the Model United Nations Club.

Nancy has served as a summer counselor at Boy Scouts camps across the country. She even participated in her Ray Dass classes while at camp in New Mexico.

“Nancy is a doer,” said her mom, Barbara. “She does great things every day that make me proud of her. I’m so thrilled to call her my daughter.”

Nancy will major in construction management but hasn’t decided on a career path.

“I have a lot of goals that aren't career-based,” she said. “I'm still trying to work out the career stuff.”

One of her goals is to hike the Appalachian Trail.

“That's a big one for me,” she said. “Probably after I graduate.”

Ian Galloway

Ian is the second National Merit Scholarship winner in the family. His sister, Taylor, who graduated from CCC in 2022, also earned one. Taylor recently completed her junior year at Florida and has applied to medical school.

“She’s on her way. She's crossing off goals, and she's doing very well,” Ian’s mom, Amanda Galloway said, “and I do think that she was a motivating factor for Ian to go after this scholarship.”

Ian’s father, Michael, is a pediatric oncologist, and Amanda is a radiation therapist.

“I come from a family that’s really, really interested in health sciences,” Ian said.

He will major in biomedical engineering with an eye on a career of “helping people from a different approach,” he said.

Ian was a member of the Model United Nations Club and Peer Ministry. He was a student ambassador and helped start the Marauders Meadow Club, a club designed to grow plants around campus.

He played basketball and soccer and ran cross country and track. He was the homecoming king as a senior. He wore a bald cap and performed a takeoff on the character “Eleven” from the Netflix series “Stranger Things” for the senior class movie during homecoming week.

“I was kind of a comic relief character,” Ian said. “I got to see myself look goofy on the big screen.”

“He was very good,” Nancy Dolson said.

The seniors won.

“He’s smart. He’s athletic. He fits into a lot of different places,” Amanda said. “He's kind of an oddball, but in a lot of good ways, so I'm excited to see where life takes him.”

Jan Mistak

Jan began sailing when he was 7 and started racing sailboats when he was 11. He’s raced in the Youth World Championship in Poland and Argentina. This summer, he will participate in the Youth World Championship in San Pedro, California.

“My dream was to combine competitive sailing with top-tier education focused on technology and science. I am thrilled to have made that dream a reality by being accepted to MIT and their varsity sailing team” he said.

Sailing in Poland represented a homecoming of sorts for Jan. His parents, Agnes and Gus, originally from Poland, have worked in real estate since early 2000.

“Hard work brought us to where we are today, and we wanted to model that for our children,” Agnes said.

When the children were young, they would go on family walks that took them past CCC. Gus and Agnes hoped that one day it would be possible for the kids to attend this school. They wanted the faith-based education and the high academics that CCC provides.

Maggie completed her freshman year at CCC, while Julia will be an eighth-grader at St. Paul Catholic School in St. Petersburg.

The honor of achieving the National Merit Finalist status definitely set a high standard for his sisters to follow.

“It's great to see that the hard work paid off for Jan, and he's an inspiration for his sisters,” Agnes said.

In addition to sailing internationally, Jan was busy during his four years at CCC.

At CCC he was a member of Water 4 Mercy, Catholic Relief Services, the Entrepreneurs Club, and Peer Ministry. He served as his homeroom representative for the student government, was a student ambassador, and competed in the newly created Math Competition club. He participated in various school-wide fundraisers.

Jan, like the others, earned a National Merit Scholarship by studying – he logged on to the Ray Dass classes wherever he was, even during his sailing travels. Yet, like the others, it wasn’t all just studying, studying, studying.

All four had a variety of interests and talents that they used to their fullest.

“Obviously, academics are important,” Chris Daily said. “But there's a lot more to it, which is great. It's the whole person that CCC looks at, which is really neat.”

Roger Mooney, manager, communication, can be reached at [email protected].