photo credit: tomertu // Shutterstock

Former East Carolina University student Nia Franklin has just been crowned Miss America 2019, as she becomes the 92nd Miss America during Sundays event.

Franklin is from Winston-Salem, attended East Carolina University and received her master’s degree in music composition from UNC School of the Arts. She later moved to New York after being accepted at the Kenan Fellow program at Lincoln Center Education in Manhattan. During her time as Miss America, Franklin plans to advocate for the arts. Franklin is also a trained opera singer, and focused on equal opportunity and education during her interview questions.

“It took a lot of perseverance to get here,” Franklin said after her win. “I want to thank my beautiful family, my mom and my dad, who is a survivor of cancer.”

“I grew up at a predominately Caucasian school and there was only five percent minority, and I felt out of place so much because of the color of my skin,” Franklin said. “But growing up, I found my love of arts, and through music that helped me to feel positive about myself and about who I was.”