University of North Carolina School of the Arts Receives $2.28 Million for Scholarships

This funding will enable students to receive full-tuition scholarships as well as on-campus mentoring and other support services 

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ (UNCSA), in Winston-Salem, NC, has been gifted $2.28 million by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust to support the school’s Posse Arts Scholarships — an initiative of the Posse Foundation created with the Miranda Family Fund.

The gift will expand the UNCSA Posse Arts Program — an initiative created in 2021 to support students interested in pursuing arts careers and to increase the diversity of leaders in the field. 

The Posse Foundation recruits and supports select emerging leaders from urban public high schools and helps send them in groups or “Posses” of 10 to top tertiary institutions nationwide. Collectively, Posse students have won close to $2 billion in scholarships from Posse partner schools, including UNCSA, which welcomed their first Arts Posse Scholars last year. 

Many Posse Scholars are the first in their families to attend college or come from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Support through the program includes full tuition, housing, meal plans, fees, on-campus mentors, and other related costs. 

The significant donation from the Trust will fund the Posse Arts Program for the upcoming academic year, as well as for the next two years. Additionally, UNCSA will be searching for permanently endowed funding to continue the program in perpetuity.

The 2023 cohort of Arts Posse Scholars at UNCSA includes nine students from across the disciplines of music, design and production, drama, and filmmaking. They are Jolie Cannava, Cebastian Gomez, Zitlali Graciano, Leslie Garcia-Rivera, Rubee Carter, Andrea Estrada, Justice Ratliff, Bryson Fink, and David Hernandez. 

“The Posse Arts Program brings so much to our university,” said UNCSA’s chancellor Brian Cole. “I have enjoyed meeting members of the first Arts Posse Scholars cohort and look forward to seeing what these gifted emerging artists will accomplish on our campus in the years to come, and in their careers.”

“The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust is honored to be a part of the artistic training for the next generation of artists,” added the Trust’s executive director, Nancy J. Cable. “The Posse Arts Program represents a transformative new resource for recruiting, nurturing and educating artists from all over the country, and we know that they will enhance the artistic and cultural fabric of our society.”

Founded in 1963, UNCAS is America’s first state-supported arts school and merged with the University of North Carolina System when it launched in 1972. The school offers undergraduate, graduate, and high school levels courses, as well as free high school tuition for in-state residents.

As part of a five-year strategic plan titled UNCSA Forward, the university is currently working to expand scholarship opportunities in all five of the disciplines offered.