A couple of local students are among more than 2,800 winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by colleges and universities.

Chad A. Schrepferman, of Columbus, and Daniel F. Haas, of West Point, were named as recipients of scholarships sponsored by Mississippi State University.

A Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science student, Schrepferman, 18, plans to attend MSU in the fall to study computer science, with an emphasis in information assurance, or the guarding of computer systems and networks against cybercrime and attack.

"I would love to pursue a job in the intelligence community," Schrepferman, the son of Allen and Vicky Schrepferman, said of his career goals. "MSU offers a co-op program through the National Security Agency (and) I'm looking at that program very seriously. I've always been interested in intelligence and government relations."

"It's been absolutely great, wonderful," Vicky Schrepferman said of her son being named a recipient. "It's put him in a class of scholarships that are just the highest. That has helped us tremendously. We don't have to worry about his college expenses.

"When you apply for other scholarships, that is a terrific thing to have on your resume," she continued. "It just verifies and validates your potential, dedication and perseverance through academic challenges. It makes us very proud."

Chad Schrepferman was home-schooled until he began attending MSMS, last year, she added.

"(The scholarship) also sort of validates what we did here, that we prepared him properly," she said. "And they really took over (at MSMS) and just did a great job."

"It has been extremely helpful," Chad Schrepferman said of receiving the scholarship. "It's caused me to be extremely thankful and it's caused me to evaluate how I want to best spend what someone else has invested.

"(It's made me thankful for) parents who raised me from the beginning, to God, who set me in the position where I can earn these things, and to my teachers," he continued. "There are so many who have been sponsors of my development. It's caused me to feel thankful; next to that, I was amazed. It's sort of opened the door for me to be fully scholarshipped at the university I've chosen."

The son of Diane and Toxey Haas, Daniel Haas, 18, is a student at Oak Hill Academy in West Point, who plans to study engineering at MSU.

"It's a great honor for all the hard work that I've put in for my high school years," he said of the scholarship. "To have an accomplishment like that as I head off to college feels good."

"We feel blessed and it's an honor," said Diane Haas. "He's a very hard worker, so I'm glad that he gets this reward for all of his hard work."

More than 2,800 students were named as winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by college and universities.

The scholarship winners were selected, by officials of each sponsor college, from among finalists in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program, who plan to attend the sponsor institutions.

The awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the college or university financing the scholarship.

Another group of scholars will be announced in July; this year, Merit Scholarship awards are underwritten by 201 higher education institutions, including 120 private and 81 public institutions located in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

MSU is a land-grant, state-supported university offering more than 75 undergraduate and more than 90 graduate degree programs.