WINSTON-SALEM – A high school senior at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship program. Erica Sloan is studying ballet in the School of Dance in her third year at UNCSA. She is the daughter of Dean and Gale Sloan of Charlotte.

Sloan is one of two UNCSA students announced as semifinalists in October 2012. Each year, roughly 15,000 high school seniors nationally are named finalists, and are eligible for college scholarships.

National Merit^® Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

As America’s first state-supported arts school, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a unique stand-alone public university of arts conservatories. With a high school component, UNCSA is a degree-granting institution that trains young people of talent in music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and design and production. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

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