"Sequoyah has given me more than I could ever hope to repay.”
Dr. Keith Miles
One of the traditions of the Sequoyah High School yearbook is to display pairs of senior students their classmates selected as “Favorites,” on at least a two-page yearbook spread. For the class of 2003, Keith Miles and Shannon Mayes were chosen as “The Best All Around.” They were both involved in athletics. Shannon was one of 11 valedictorians that year with a GPA of 4.0.
After Keith Miles graduated from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, he and Shannon, his high school sweetheart, were married. He attended medical school at Oklahoma State University-Center for Health Sciences. After graduating in May 2012, he started his residency in Family Medicine at OSU in Tulsa.
Dr. Keith Miles is currently practicing medicine at Utica Park Clinic in Claremore. He provides medical coverage for Sequoyah varsity football games and home junior high games. He is currently accepting patients and Utica Park Clinic accepts most insurances. I asked Keith for a comment about his Sequoyah Experience.
“I owe a lot to the Sequoyah community. The teachers and coaches taught me how to be the person I knew I was capable of becoming. There were numerous challenges I faced during college and medical school. Sequoyah taught me that if I put my pride aside, performed the work required, and sought out additional instruction in areas I was weak, then I would be successful. I had no fear approaching professors, as this is what I had grown accustomed to as a Sequoyah student.
The best example I can give is when I was a freshman at NSU. I sat through the first lecture of a very difficult class, and was very discouraged. I approached the professor after class, and she set me up with a tutor. I spent numerous hours in the library. I ended up having a high enough grade in the class that it allowed me to bypass the final exam and still maintain an A average. There were numerous other individuals in the class that had higher ACT scores and high school GPA's. They were unable to achieve the same kind of success.
Sequoyah provides excellent instruction, but it also teaches you more than the information in the books. It teaches you how to achieve your goals. Numerous teachers along the way went the extra mile to build my confidence and provide me with proper instruction. There were numerous times in athletics I would get down on myself. The coaches instilled the will power I would need to carry me throughout the rest of my life.
There were several nights studying in medical school, or working in the hospital during residency, that I was reminded of the tools I had been provided with at Sequoyah. I am forever in debt to my school for what they have invested in me. I also started dating my future wife during our freshman year. Sequoyah has given me more than I could ever hope to repay.”