Ryan Miller

Point Scholar: 2004-2008

Harvard Graduate School of Education
M.A., Higher Education Administration

Ryan, raised in a conservative community near Austin, Texas, began his coming out at the age of 14. He still went on to serve as Student Body President and graduated in the top two percent of his high school class. Because of the discrimination he faced as a young queer person, he was inspired to work for change at the University of Texas, where he completed a Bachelor of Journalism with honors in 2007 as a Point Scholar. As Director of the Queer Students Alliance, Ryan co-wrote a 192-page report on LGBT campus affairs that issued 70 recommendations, as well as organizing a statewide LGBT youth conference, leading the group to be named UT’s most outstanding among 1,100 student organizations. He also served as Co-Director of Safe Space and Students for Equity and Diversity, facilitator of undergraduate courses on racism and sexism and associate editor of the daily newspaper. After graduation, Ryan worked for UT’s Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement. A believer in the transformative power of education and a first-generation college graduate, his ultimate goal is a career of inspiring college students to utilize their privilege to advance social justice.