Alumna and author La’Tonya Rease Miles shares her ‘first-gen origin story’
Álvaro Castillo I UCLA
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.”
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Photo courtesy of La’Tonya Rease Miles.