Recent Rockwood Graduates Earn College-Sponsored National Merit Scholarships

Recent Rockwood School District graduates Maleah Eggers, Caleb Mitchell, James Tse and Nolan Zink of Marquette High and Mary Jenna Hails and Charlie Heppe of Lafayette High are among the first round of this year’s College-Sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners.

More than 2,900 college-sponsored scholarship winners were announced June 4, with an additional group being named in July to bring the total to more than 3,600.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. This year, 146 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 74 private and 72 public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

Rockwood’s six honorees are among only 57 college-sponsored scholarship winners from the state of Missouri announced in the first round. Along with five corporate-sponsored awardees and two who earned $2500 scholarships, 13 recent Rockwood graduates have now earned 2025 National Merit Scholarships. By the conclusion of this year’s competition, more than 6,930 students will have won National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $26 million.

Congratulations to these outstanding Rockwood graduates!

Maleah Eggers, Marquette - National Merit University of Missouri-Columbia Scholarship

Maleah Eggers will be studying Architecture with an emphasis in Interior Design at University of Missouri. She will also be running cross country and track for the Tigers.

Mary Jenna Hails, Lafayette - National Merit University of Georgia Scholarship

Mary Jenna Hails will be studying Economics and Data Science at the University of Georgia.

Charlie Heppe, Lafayette - National Merit University of Alabama Scholarship

Charlie Heppe will be studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Alabama, with plans to attend medical school.

Caleb Mitchell, Marquette - National Merit Missouri University of Science and Technology Scholarship

Caleb Mitchell plans to dual-major in Semiconductor Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Missouri S&T.

James Tse, Marquette - National Merit University of Texas at Dallas Scholarship

James Tse plans to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas-Dallas.

Nolan Zink, Marquette - National Merit Rochester Institute of Technology Scholarship

Nolan Zink plans to double major in Computer Science and Cybersecurity at RIT, which gave him a partial scholarship for four years. He was early-accepted into the accelerated bachelor's/master's program and will be a part of the RIT honors college.