University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Alumni Feature - Tanya Harris
10.25.2010 | Track and Field
Each week www.uncabulldogs.com will do a feature on a former Bulldog student-athlete or coach and find out what they're doing since they left Asheville. This week's feature is on Tanya Harris.
Former track and field standout Tanya Harris returned to Asheville last year and is helping young people turn their lives around.
Harris is one of the top Bulldog sprinters in school history. She was the first Asheville sprinter to ever qualify for the NCAA Championships when she won the Big South Conference championships in the 400 meters in 2004. In 2006, Harris set a Big South record winning the 400 and once again qualified for the NCAA Championships. She also won the 400 in the Indoor season in both 2005 and 2006.
After graduating from UNC Asheville in 2006 with honors in psychologoy, she pursued a life-long dream of becoming a lawyer. Tanya attended North Carolina Central in Durham and finished up in 2009. She graduated magna cum laude from Central. Harris quickly passed the bar exam to become an attorney. When it came time to pick a place to practice, she jumped at an opportunity to become a Public Defender in Buncombe County.
"I always wanted to be a lawyer," commented Harris. "I grew up watching Law & Order and just knew I wanted to be in the courtroom."
Tanya works a full caseload but has a special place for juveniles that get into trouble.
"I really want to help young people before they become adults," stated Harris in between trials one day at the Buncombe County Courthouse. "What I try to do besides defending them is to offer them services with organizations that can help them. If there's a way to prevent a juvenile from going the wrong way, I want to do everything in my power to make sure that happens."
Harris enjoys her job.
"I really like being a Public Defender," admitted Harris. "It's a job where it's never boring. Every day brings new challenges but I wouldn't want it any other way."
The Florida native got through three grueling years of law school, thanks partly to being a former student-athlete at UNC Asheville.
"When you're a student-athlete, you learn about time management and how to juggle a lot of different things," stated Harris. "I learned quickly at UNC Asheville how to budget my time for studying, for training and for meets. That knowledge really helped me in law school and allowed me to get my work done when I needed to get it done. It wasn't as big of a challenge in law school with my studying habits as it was for other people. I'm lucky that UNC Asheville prepared me so well."
Tanya hopes to someday go to in education herself someday.
"My long-term goal is to one day be a professor in law school. I'd really like to be a teacher at some point," stated Harris. "But that's a little ways off. Right now I really enjoy what I'm doing and the people I help."
Note - If you know of a former Bulldog student-athlete who you would like to see profiled, contact Mike Gore at mgore@unca.edu or call 828-251-6923.
