Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

-063 Lewis Miles Following in the footsteps of three generations of Spelhouse graduates certainly creates the pressure to live up to your fam ily’s expectations. However, Lew is Miles has joined the ranks of great men and women who have walked the sacred campuses of Spelman and Morehouse and has shaped his own path. Miles, a senior Sociology major from Thomasville, N.C., comes from a long line of Spelhouse lin eage. His great uncle - who grad uated from Morehouse in 1939 - joined the Army after gaining his bachelor's degree. He served for seven years and then went to New York University to obtain his master’s degree. Afterwards, he came back to Atlanta to teach for 30 years at what was then a segregated school but eventually became Booker T. Washington High School. His cousin Ernestine graduated from Spelman in 1957, served as president of Spelman’s alumnae chapter and received the Blue Spirit Award in 2017. These two individuals influenced Miles’ fa ther to enroll at Morehouse when he was considering enlisting in the military. His father, who was a Political Science major, graduated at the top of his department in 1981. Miles will follow in his father’s footsteps and will also graduate as the highest-ranking scholar in his department this year. Al though he and his father have accomplished some of the same goals, Miles has also begun to create his own legacy. During his time at Morehouse, Miles has served as lead RA in Graves Hall, Presidential Ambas sador, an Oprah Winfrey Inter national Fellowship participant - which allowed him to travel to South Africa and Zimbabwe free of charge - and a UNCF Mellon Mays Undergraduate fellow. He will graduate Phi Beta Kappa with summa cum laude honors. He has also traveled abroad to Brazil and Ghana. Pursuing his own path has not always been clear to Miles, how ever. When he enrolled at More- L j V ■Jk PLewis Miles house, 'fit arl!iciplrto!r^Sming a litigator and the next civil rights attorney to enact anti-discrim ination laws. He took Political Science courses but was disinter ested. He became an undeclared major at the end of first semester freshman year to take time to fig ure out what he was truly inter ested in. The next semester, he took Dr. Derrick Bryan’s Intro to Sociology course. Through the course con tent and Bryan’s unique pedago gy, which was comical, interest ing and engaging, Miles decided to declare his major in Sociology and is confident he made the right decision. Miles cites gaining admission into several competitive graduate school programs as his biggest accomplishment this academic year. In the fall, he will attend the University of Michigan, fully funded, to pursue his Ph.D. in Sociology. Miles aspires to be a vessel of knowledge who “renders sustain able solutions for everyday prob lems that affect the most disad vantaged.” He imagines that he will achieve this goal by possibly becoming a college professor or a consultant. Ultimately, howev er, he would like to be happy and impactful. Miles believes that his purpose is to “provide people with the tools to determine their positionality in that moment and in the future.” He considers education to be absolutely intrinsic to his being and pursuing knowledge is the best way for people to shape their destiny. Alexander Harris, Jr. Alexander Harris Jr. enrolled at Morehouse unsure of what he wanted to do. He experiences not believing in himself more times than he feels people believe in him. While he receives affirma tion from others, there is a men- HALL OF FAME