BLOOMINGTON— It’s graduation weekend at IU and thousands of students will walk across the stage, that includes Reggie Johnson and Liv Clements.
“It’s going to be a great story to tell,” said Reggie Johnson, who is graduating from IU.
Johnson will graduate this weekend alongside his daughter Liv Clements. The two are getting their degrees from IU together.
“I can’t wait to say I graduated and doing it with him makes it that much better,” said Clements.
Johnson started working at IU more than 20 years ago and was in various departments throughout the years.
“It supported my family, so it was really easy to maintain and the people were great,” said Johnson.
Her dad working at IU also made it an easy choice for Clements. She says through the process of looking at schools her dad started looking at the possibility of going too.
“It’s like a casual day sitting on the couch and he was like ‘I think I might go too’ I’m like okay whatever,” said Clements. “He said they told him about he tuition benefits and all of that and of course that comes into play.”
“I was like ‘oh I’m going back to school.’ I didn’t want it to take away from her experience. My main priority was making sure she had the experience she was going to anticipate,” said Johnson.
Clements experience was better than she could have imagined.
“We’ve done everything together. There’s not one milestone he’s went through or I went through that we haven’t been a part of it together and so it doesn’t feel like it would have made sense to not do this together.”
They spent the last four years motivating each other to get to class, had late night study sessions, and grabbed lunch on campus.
“It was really great because it was like a built in support system,” said Johnson.
“That’s why it kind of makes me sad that we’re graduating. It’s like the little memories that I remember now where I’d be like ‘hey where you at? I’m trying to study’ and he’s like oh yea me too,” said Clements.
Now four years later, they’ve reached another milestone together. Reggie gets to be a proud dad and proud grad while showing his daughter you can accomplish anything at any age.
“It will tug on the heart a little bit to know she’s completed so much and I was able to go back and get this degree,” said Johnson.
“It’s never been just about me through this process. I just couldn’t be more proud of him,” said Clements.
Clements is graduating from the IU Media School with the goal of becoming a sports reporter. Johnson is getting his degree in Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management.
