Alumna and author La’Tonya Rease Miles shares her ‘first-gen origin story’

Álvaro Castillo | February 25, 2025

La’Tonya “LT” Rease Miles has perhaps an unexpected favorite among superheroes: the Flash.

“The main reason, other than being a pretty ordinary guy, is that his superpower is … running,” Miles said with a smile. “But as someone who conquered a childhood fear of escalators and went on to sprint for sport, his story reminds me that I have the ability to do extraordinary things.”

One of those has been her academic journey, starting at the University of Maryland and leading to UCLA, where she earned a Ph.D. in American literature in 2004. As the first in her family to attend and graduate from a four-year university, the Washington, D.C., native’s path wasn’t exactly a straight line.

“I often say that I didn’t come from a college-going family,” Miles said. “I grew up in a sports-loving one.”

She remembers the steady stream of basketball games on TV and the lively discussions stemming from friendly rivalries that filled her family home.

“When I decided to go to college myself, I wasn’t sure how to go about picking schools to apply to, but I was able to draw upon the world that sports exposed me to,” she said. “And after three generations of us cheering for schools we had never seen, I became the first person in my family to be accepted to multiple universities.”

Finding a home at UCLA

After completing her undergraduate studies in 1994, Miles, motivated to pursue a graduate education, set her sights on programs along the Eastern seaboard. However, with the encouragement of a faculty mentor — another Black first-generation woman she met at UMD — Miles began to entertain an even more daunting idea: relocating to the West Coast to attend graduate school at UCLA.

“Explaining to my family why I wanted to do this was tense, which I think is a common experience for many first-gen students,” Miles said. “My family had no notion of living in California and couldn’t comprehend why I didn’t just apply to nearby schools.”

While UCLA remained approximately 2,670 miles from home — or about a 9-minute run if you’re the Flash — her family came around after a successful campus visit and the UCLA men’s basketball team’s NCAA championship win.

“When they heard I was headed to the home of the champions, that’s the moment it all became clear,” she said.

At UCLA, Miles found she could be her authentic self and hone her academic research on topics she was passionate about — no matter how seemingly disparate — like sports, cheerleading, hip hop, MTV, comics and more.

“So many faculty members and colleagues from my doctoral program embraced my study of popular culture, which was huge for me,” she said. “Even if people didn’t know what I was talking about or weren’t as familiar with the rules of basketball or the landscape of hip hop as I was, their support was palpable, and I’m thankful for that to this day.”

Miles’ creativity and curiosity led her to develop courses on music, including one about rap mogul Jay-Z, and a class examining the representation of cheerleaders in literature and pop culture, which was featured in a 2002 issue of American Cheerleader magazine.

“Thanks to the community of professors that made up my program, I really got to experiment and be playful with my academics,” Miles said. “Here I was, this working-class East Coast kid who loves the Celtics, writing a whole dissertation on things that defined my upbringing. It was transformative.” 

Smart girl: A hero’s journey

Miles also carved out a professional pathway, dedicating herself to supporting first-generation and underrepresented students.

Before and after graduating with her doctorate, Miles worked as a staff member for UCLA’s Academic Advancement Program, spearheading programs like First to Go and Research Rookies. She also directed the UCLA McNair Research Scholars program and helped create the University of California’s First-Gen collaborative.

“Having access to mentorship as an undergraduate student had a big impact on me, so I’ve always thought of this work as my way of paying it forward,” Miles said. “What can I do to help support first-gen students who are crafty, smart and resourceful but need community and a boost to get through?”

She still carries that mission, both in her current work as a higher education consultant and by writing her memoir, “Smart Girl: A First-Gen Origin Story.”

Miles had not thought deeply about why she felt compelled to serve first-gen students until a conversation she had with a colleague at UCLA. “We were just hanging out and in the midst of discussing how we can best support our students,” Miles said. “She looks at me and says, ‘LT, you know you’re a first-gen student too, right?’”

The irony was not lost on Miles.

“My entire life, I knew that I was Black, that my family was low-income,” Miles said. “I also knew I was the first person in my family to earn a college degree, but I never understood that this made me a first-gen student. I didn’t have the language to articulate this connection and always attributed the challenges I faced to other aspects of my identity.”

True to form, she processed her newfound clarity through a specific pop culture lens.

“I realized other people were going through something similar and that there was a community,” Miles said. “It’s kind of like finding out you’re a mutant in the world of the X-Men; there are others like me — amazing people with the power to overcome great obstacles.”