Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915

March 19, 2003 GLOVER SETS STAGE FOR HOLLYWOOD AT UNM Many students who come to the University of New Mexico hope to discover their calling by graduation. Not UNM freshman Merritt Glover. The 2002 Farmington High School graduate says she is "extremely blessed to know what it is I want to do with my life." Glover, a theater major, shares her ambitions as she embarks on a stroll to the University's Center for the Arts - a steppingstone to her final destination, Hollywood, Calif. Picture perfect for the part, the statuesque beauty reaches in her stylish handbag for a pair of sunglasses and remarks, "Drama is the one constant in my life." Well, drama and the dean's list. Attending UNM on a prestigious Presidential Scholarship, Glover has consistently achieved top grades. She selected UNM over schools back east and due west because she was offered the scholarship and the freedom to practice her art form from the start. "I was able to audition and perform in a play my very first semester," she shared. Glover appeared in the short play "Sailing in Dark Waters" in UNM's Words Afire Festival last fall. This semester, she was cast in "The Lost Diary," a play based on short stories written by Anton Chekov. In late April, she will perform in "Chamber Music," a one-act play about eight women committed to an insane asylum. "I was very lucky to get in the door my freshman year and appear in three performances. Hopefully, the opportunities will continue," she said. UNM wasn't Glover's first brush with stardom. At age seven, she appeared as an extra in the feature film "Silent Tongue," directed by Sam Shepard and filmed in Roswell, where she lived until moving to Farmington at age 13. "Just being part of the movie process - I knew then that it was what I wanted to do," she recalled. Actually, she admitted, "it was probably in the cards when I was born. In pre-school performances I always had to be up front. My dad said I scolded people who hadn't practiced. I got a lot of support from my parents." At Farmington High School, drama teacher Dave Huber helped further her dream. He served as faculty advisor to the drama club, which Glover helped organize and then served as its president. The two performed together in Black River Trading, Farmington's professional summer stock. Glover was also an active volunteer with the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership organization. The glamorous resumé helped her win the UNM Presidential Scholarship, offered exclusively to New Mexico's outstanding high school graduates. The scholarships are awarded on academic merit and leadership skills and are renewable for up to four years; these scholarships go above and beyond the cost of tuition - paying for textbooks and other fees. "I'm driven to keep the scholarship that got me here," Glover remarks on attaining the dean's list her first semester. "I lot of good things are going to come out of my education here." Glover lives in a dorm under the watchful eye of big brother Drew, a senior majoring in criminology and psychology, who resides nearby. Although it's still act one of her college career, Glover seems firm on her plan to move to Tinseltown upon graduation. "If I spend the rest of my life doing auditions then that's how it is. Success to me isn't the million dollar figures. It's being able to support myself doing what I want to do," Glover said.

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981