The Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation is dedicated to fostering educational opportunities for Pennsbury High School students. Our primary goal is to provide financial support to deserving students, enabling them to pursue higher education without the burden of overwhelming debt. We are committed to nurturing the academic and personal growth of our students, ensuring they have the resources needed to succeed in their educational endeavors.

Since 1956, the Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation has existed to help deserving Pennsbury graduates achieve their goal of higher education.

The idea of the Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation began in 1954, when Medill Bair, regional superintendent of the Pennsbury Joint School District, started a personal campaign to convince local educators and civic and industrial leaders there should be financial assistance “to see that every boy and girl, having attended the Pennsbury Schools, can advance to a higher learning of his or her choice, regardless of race, color or creed.”

In 1955, Mr. Bair invited a group of local businessmen and community leaders to the Washington Crossing Inn to discuss his vision for a scholarship foundation that would help make it possible for every boy or girl graduating from Pennsbury to attend the post high school institution of their choice.

This founding group of businessmen met often to plan, organize, and carry out projects and fundraising events that would provide the basis for perpetuating yearly scholarships. The Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation was incorporated in 1956, making it the oldest privately funded scholarship foundation serving a public school district in the country.

In the early days between 1956 and 1968, the scholarships were awarded based primarily on need. In 1968, an endowment came from the estate of a prominent local developer and his wife, William H. and Anna C. Hayes. Along with the Hayes endowment came guidelines for awarding scholarships that are still used today. All scholarships are based equally on four criteria: financial need, academic achievement, leadership and character. All scholarships are awarded as one-half grant and one-half zero-interest loan, repayable starting 6 months after the student leaves college.

The mission of Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation is to build and maintain a scholarship fund, to be devoted to the cost of supporting specialized or higher education training above the secondary level, to deserving persons who have graduated from Pennsbury High School.