By day Nathan Cayanan is a mild-mannered college instructor and UCLA Extension alumnus, but that belies the truth within – that the 40-year-old Southern California native is a fledgling comic book writer, donning the pen for truth, justice and a satisfying creative outlet.

“Every time I come across a good book or movie, there’s this moment where time stops, and you find yourself in a moment that truly resonates. I was always obsessed with that moment,” said Cayanan, who teaches business communications at California State University, Fullerton. “For me, I’m just fascinated by that. To me, those moments make life worth living.”

Cayanan has found a spark writing stories for characters in the DC Comics universe, along with developing his own novel/comic hybrid. In 2022, Cayanan on a whim applied for the DC Comics Milestone Initiative, which is a talent development program for marginalized writers and artists who want to break into the industry. He was shocked when he was accepted.

“It was a surreal moment,” he said.

Cayanan is using his new platform to tell stories that he feels have been previously ignored or underreported. For example, his story involving DC Comics/Milestone Media character, Icon, takes place in the 1960s during the Cambodian War. The book he is now developing independently focuses on Asian American street gangs.

“There’s not many books about these topics,” he said. “I’ve been trying to read everything I can for the research, and there is just so much I never even knew about that these stories can help bring to life.”

Cayanan originally went to college to study film with the idea he would become a Hollywood director.

“After college, I realized I didn’t really have the personality for it,” he said.

Instead, after taking advantage of an opportunity to teach abroad in Asia and working for the Princeton Review teaching SAT and GRE courses, he realized he had an aptitude for the classroom. When he returned to the U.S., Cayanan taught ESL (English as a Second Language) courses at the community college level. He decided to enroll at the UCLA Extension TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program about two years later, which he said was transformative to his outlook on teaching and the impact he could have.

“I realized if I wanted to advance in this field, I needed to develop more competency and further my education,” he added. “UCLA Extension was always something I was aware of where I could accomplish that.”

The fact that he could attend the TESOL courses virtually and not brave the traffic coming to and from the San Gabriel Valley made the program even more enticing.

“I found it very valuable,” he said. “It wasn’t just about how you teach English. It focused more on what was going on in the industry, and more about practical tools you could use and classroom management in the context of what was going on with society. I was pretty old school when it came to teaching – just go in, teach the stuff, students nod their heads and we’re good to go. But no, if I really wanted them to succeed, I needed to understand where they were coming from and adapt my pedagogy. It’s really about something bigger.”

The TESOL classes paid dividends immediately. Not too long after he completed the program, he was awarded Part-Time Professor of the Year at Irvine Valley College. The lessons he learned then continue to steer his methods today.

“Even now, while the student population has changed even more, some of the things I learned back at UCLA Extension I still apply to my current job at Cal State Fullerton,” he said.

Cayanan is proud of his teaching career, especially when he reflects on his time helping underserved populations who can often fall through the cracks. He beams when he tells stories about former students, like the undocumented mom finally learning English after years of hard work sending her kids to college, or a Syrian refugee doctor who was restarting his life in the United States.

“I’m doing this because it is fulfilling, and it allows me to do something good for these good people,” he added.

With a couple of decades of teaching under his belt, Cayanan will not be ditching his “alter ego” anytime soon. So, while he writes a hero’s journey in his free time, he has more than shown he doesn’t need a cape to be someone special to the hundreds of students he has taught through the years.