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The following feature story appeared in the campus publication Mosaic in February, 1997.
LaTanya Langley '97
Pursuing life & law at full throttle
For LaTanya Langley '97, who last spring earned a 4.0 grade-point average while enrolled in six courses and serving as a teaching assistant, free time is essentially not an option. When not working on her senior honors thesis, or singing, or arranging special events for a variety of organizations on campus, the political science major is most likely pursuing her interest in law as a legal assistant for a Connecticut law firm.
"She's one of the few students I have to tell to take it easy and not work quite so hard," claims her adviser Political Science Professor Clyde McKee. "She works at her maximum capability all the time. I'm very impressed with her," he said.
The Norwalk, Connecticut native had an impressive array of options when it came to her college education. Langley applied to 11 colleges and was accepted to quite a few large, well-known and respected schools including Georgetown University, Duke University, Villanova University, University of North Carolina and Drew University. But it was primarily the flexibility and opportunity that Trinity's liberal arts curriculum offered, coupled with the breadth and diversity within the political science department, that led to her decision to enroll here. "I was impressed with the freedom a student has here," Langley said. "There are so many choices Trinity students can make over their four years here."
Race relations forum
Since coming to Trinity, Langley has become active in several organizations on campus, including the Trinity College Women's Organization, the Pan-African Alliance, and the Gospel Choir. Through her involvement in these groups, she has organized a number of lectures by prominent community leaders, including one by her mentor, Hartford City Manager Saundra Kee Borges '81. Also of note was a forum she planned last year on race relations that featured area professors, lawyers, and members of activist groups such as the 21st-Century Black Panther Party. The event, she said, was inspired by the "Million Man March" to the nation's capital in 1995.
When she can manage to find a spare moment, Langley enjoys spending it singing, both on campus and at various public events in and around her hometown. A former winner of the nationally-televised talent competition "Teen Search," Langley's first significant public singing experience came at the age of eight in her church. She credits her parents with being supportive of her many diverse interests. "They were the type of parents who would encourage me to do anything and everything," Langley said.
London and the law
Off campus, Langley has worked as a legal assistant at the Stamford-based law firm of Cummings and Lockwood since her senior year of high school. There she assists in handling the business affairs of major clients. This hands-on legal experience was a key factor in Langley's decision to study abroad in the College's program associated with the London School of Economics. While in London last semester, she enrolled in three law courses and served in an intensive internship with a criminal defense barrister. Her work allowed her entry into chambers closed to the general public and provided her education in legal affairs, an important new dimension, she said. "The biggest difference between two legal systems is probably the one that exists between the U.S. and England," Langley said. "I wanted to compare the two."
As far away from Trinity as she was while in England, Langley was reminded of the College in sometimes remarkable ways. When riding in "the tube" one day, an apparent stranger noticed Langley reading The Trinity Tripod and proceeded to introduce herself as Felice Hawley '80, now a news producer at CNN in London. "That's a contact that I made just by reading the Tripod in another country," she joked.
Langley said it took her a semester abroad to appreciate the level of technology at Trinity. "I came home and hugged my computer," she said, explaining that she had to write all her papers in longhand while she was abroad. "Trinity's technology definitely enhances education, but you don't fully appreciate this advantage until you are away from it," Langley said. "It takes longer to learn something when you don't have resources like we do at Trinity."
Back now for her final semester at the College, she is busy researching her senior honors thesis on the civil rights implications of female genital mutilation in Africa. "This practice in itself shows that women still have a long way to go in the human rights arena," she asserts. Langley said she is staying with her lucky number of 11 as she applies to law schools and hopes to be admitted to her first choice, Georgetown University. After pursuing a career in law, she hopes someday to become a congresswoman.
-- Michael Bradley '98