Applying to be on “MasterChef” was a whim. Getting on the popular Fox show was a huge surprise to Gadsden native Savannah Miles.
So, she always had a Plan B.
Miles was voted off the show Wednesday night, but she started law school at the University of Alabama last month.
After all, filming ended in March, and the amateur chef knew she hadn’t won the $250,000 prize to open her own restaurant. Law school had always been on the local activist and farmer’s mind since she graduated from Harvard in 2018.
It’s literally in her blood. Her father, Philip, is a plaintiff’s attorney, as is her maternal grandfather, Greg Cusimano.
“I grew up working in my dad’s office,” said the 27-year-old from her house in Tuscaloosa. “That’s how I would pay for a new pair of shoes.”
Miles wants to be the same kind of attorney as her father and grandfather because she said she feels like that’s where she can help people the most.
She mentioned one lawsuit her grandfather was involved in where clients won millions from a company that was making people sick by polluting the water.
“You don’t get paid if you don’t win,” she said.
Miles has been helping the Gadsden community since she graduated. She’s been involved in trying to heal the racial divide she sees in her hometown, and she’s joined action groups dealing with a variety of social issues.
Change is hard to make, she said. But as an attorney, she might be in a better position to make more changes
