Nearly 30 Rockwood Students Named Semifinalists for National Merit Scholarships

A total of 26 Rockwood students representing all four high schools have been named semifinalists for the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP).

Each year, approximately 16,000 high school seniors from around the nation are selected as semifinalists for this prestigious program, which gives them the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,700 National Merit Scholarships worth around $24 million that will be offered in the spring.

This pool of semifinalists represents less than 1 percent of all U.S. high school seniors. Rockwood's National Merit Scholarship semifinalists are:

• Aydan Abraham, Rockwood Summit 
• Drake Autry, Eureka*
• Noah Bairu, Lafayette
• Mihir Busani, Marquette
• Caleb Hardee, Rockwood Summit
• Neha Kumpati, Marquette
• Wangshu Liu, Marquette
• Ananthaa Madhavan, Marquette
• Vihaan Madhavan, Marquette
• Medha Madupalli, Marquette
• Wesley Miller, Marquette
• Advik Nadikota, Marquette
• Kiera Nickel, Marquette
• Shritha Nidamanuri, Marquette
• Sreeyash Peyyeti, Marquette
• Anshu Rajoli, Marquette
• Daya Rao, Marquette
• Prabhjas Singh, Marquette
• Jonah Starenchak, Marquette
• Siddhartha Subbella, Marquette
• Allen Sunil, Marquette
• Arpitha Sureshkumar, Lafayette
• Ayush Vasireddy, Marquette
• Sruti Yanamanamanda, Marquette
• Abigail Zhang, Marquette
• Ali Zhang, Rockwood Summit

* - Drake completed his high school course of study in three years and graduated from Eureka in the spring.

High school juniors entered the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2025 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Marquette (20) has the second-highest number of semifinalists of any school in the state of Missouri, public or private, and the highest total among public schools. Overall, Rockwood contributed nearly 10 percent of the 264 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists from Missouri this year. Last year, out of 22 Rockwood semifinalists, 11 earned National Merit Scholarships.

From this group of semifinalists, around 15,000 will be selected as finalists in February, based on their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received.

Congratulations to these outstanding Rockwood students!