ECC Grads Receive rootEd Alliance Transfer Scholarships

Two East Central College Class of 2022 graduates are recipients of a rootEd Alliance Transfer Scholarship that is helping them fund their four-year degrees.

The rootEd Alliance partners with the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis to award new scholarships to undergraduate and transfer students from rural Missouri, filling critical gaps in students’ financial aid packages to help ensure they graduate debt-free. The rootEd Undergraduate Scholarship is a renewable grant of up to $12,000 per academic year.

David Wysong, Sullivan, received the maximum grant available for this academic year.

Wysong graduated from ECC with an Associate of Arts degree with a Business emphasis. He received $12,000 — $6,000 each semester — to help pay for classes at the University of Missouri. Columbia.

He is a business major with plans to seek a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA).

“I was surprised to be selected,” Wysong said. “This is a great opportunity and one less thing to stress about for me and my family.

“I will get a bachelor’s degree for almost no cost,” he added.

Michael Adkison, of the Labadie area, received $10,000, split evenly between the Fall and Spring semesters, to help him pay for tuition at Missouri State University in Springfield where he is studying sports medicine.

Adkison graduated from ECC with an Associate of Arts degree with a STEM emphasis. He aspires to be a physical therapist.

“I am very grateful for this award and that it will make it easier for me to strive to be the best physical therapist in the future,” he said. “I am forever thankful for the rootEd Alliance.”

Over the past four years, rootEd Alliance has provided dedicated support to students from rural areas and small towns across Missouri as they pursue their education beyond high school.

The organization does so, in part, through providing funding and resources for student success advisors in high schools and community colleges, and through creating opportunities, like the rootEd Alliance Transfer Scholarships.

Students transferring from any community college in Missouri, who also graduated from a rural high school in Missouri over the past five years, are eligible for the rootEd Scholarship.

Class or 2023 graduates can begin applying for the scholarship in the spring.

For more information, visit https://sfstl.org/rooted-community-college-transfer-scholarship/, or call ECC at 636-584-6588.