Kierstead accepted to Western Carolina University and UNC-Charlotte

Please congratulate Zachary Kierstead on his recent acceptances to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC and to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.  Way to go Zachary!

WCU was founded in August 1889 as a semi-public secondary school and chartered as Cullowhee High School in 1891. The founder, Professor Robert Lee Madison, wanted to provide an education for the young people in the region and train teachers to spread education throughout the western part of the state. In 1893 the Legislature designated the school as the first publicly funded normal school. 
Over the next 40 years, the school expanded its curriculum and evolved into a junior college, and in 1929 it was chartered by the legislature as a four-year institution under the name Western Carolina Teachers College. Often called “the Cullowhee experiment,” Madison’s idea became the model for the other regional colleges in the state.
The demand for the liberal arts and programs in other areas of learning led to an expansion of the school's offerings. Postgraduate studies and the Master of Arts in Education degree were added to the curriculum in 1951 after several decades of rapid growth and sweeping changes. In 1953, the name Western Carolina College was adopted.

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte stakes its claim as the state’s urban research university.  As the region’s only public doctoral-granting institution, UNC Charlotte is a driving force of growth, discovery and innovation for the greater Mecklenburg Country metropolitan statistical area.
With more than 25,000 enrolled students, including roughly 5,000 master’s and doctoral candidates, UNC Charlotte is the third-largest institution in the UNC system. It leverages its location in the state’s largest city to offer internationally competitive programs of research and creative activity and exemplary undergraduate, graduate and professional programs coupled with a focused set of community engagement initiatives that enrich the region’s quality of life.