Family Ties: Parents, children, siblings celebrate together as fellow members of the Class of 2026

Liberty University’s 53rd Commencement was expected to bring in over 70,000 graduates and their loved ones to campus this week for the largest annual event in Central Virginia. While many family members cheered on their children, grandchildren, siblings, and spouses from the audience, others earned the uniquely special opportunity to turn their tassels alongside their relatives as fellow members of the Class of 2026.

In this year’s graduating class, there are 15 married couples, 63 parent/child pairings, 237 groupings of siblings, and 23 sets of twins.

For some families, studying at Liberty is a joint adventure to further their education and grow in their individual fields. For others, sharing an alma mater has become a tradition through the generations.

Three members of the Thomas family are celebrating together this weekend. Jeremy and Heather Thomas (’22) live with their six children in Central Florida just outside of Orlando, and they have made private Christian education a family constant through the varied residential and online programs offered by Liberty. Heather was the first to enroll, and she earned her master’s in school counseling through Liberty University Online Programs in 2022. Some of her children have enrolled in the K-12 Liberty University Online Academy, and the older children have experienced online dual enrollment through Liberty as well.

At Commencement, Heather watched three of her family members follow in her footsteps: her husband, Jeremy, and their two sons, Grant and Aiden.

“We started doing college tours when Grant was ready to go to school, and we visited a whole bunch of Christian colleges and universities… and as soon as he saw the campus, he wanted to come,” she said. “Our other kids said, ‘This is going to be our school.’ It’s been fun for us as online students, and even our younger children as online students, to get to go visit their brothers and go to Convocation and Campus Community and still see what’s happening residentially.”

Grant, the oldest son, earned his bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, and Aiden earned his bachelor’s in film production & creative development.

Jeremy Thomas, who earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, said his family has appreciated how each of Liberty’s programs incorporates a biblical worldview and is taught by professors who amplify Christ in the classroom.

“We’ve all had professors who care about us as a whole person and teach with the biblical worldview, and they are people who you know care about shaping your faith,” he said. “That’s a common thing that we’ve experienced as a family in our different programs.”

They all attended the Commencement Main Ceremony on Friday night.

“I’m really proud of my boys and excited for what God’s doing with them right now. To be able to sit there on the (Williams Stadium) field and celebrate Commencement with them was just an extremely proud moment for me,” he said. “I got to celebrate them, congratulate them, and just be part of it with them. We’re excited to be able to celebrate the accomplishments that we’ve all had.”

Four members of the Hill family from Kentucky celebrated their degrees together this week. In 2022, mother Jane Hill was looking for a high school homeschool option for her daughter Isabella and found that Liberty University Online Academy fit her criteria, including the dual enrollment option that allowed Isabella to graduate with an Associate of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies.

“We were looking for a homeschool curriculum that was Christ-centered but also had a weighty program for academics that included a dual enrollment track,” Jane Hill said. “It was exciting for (Isabella) to know that there were several classes that would satisfy her high school credit as well as her college credit. That’s why LUOA was a no-brainer for us.”

Sister Emilia followed Isabella’s footsteps to LUOA, beginning as a sophomore, and graduated from the high school program at Commencement. Liberty holds a separate degree ceremony for LUOA and invites all of its graduates to participate in the Commencement Main Ceremony on Friday evening. There are 1,900 LUOA graduates in the Class of 2026.

Jane’s other daughter, Lily, is graduating with an Associate of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. She studies online while working with Youth With a Mission in Nashville.

Impressed by her daughters’ education through Liberty, Jane was stirred herself to return to school, and she completed her Master of Theological Studies through Liberty University Online Programs.

“I had seen their journey as a mom and I had seen just the quality of the materials that they were working with in the curriculum, and it was so good that it made me want to go back to school,” she said. “God just started this new hunger for knowledge about Him, and it really led me on that journey.”

The experience between the mother and three daughters was inspirational in both directions.

“I feel like my daughters inspire me, but I also am aware that I inspire them because, (knowing) I’m 47, going back to school was a little hard for me,” she said. “They saw me overcome a lot of fear, and they are able to walk that journey with me, and they’re able to see what can be done. They get to see that you don’t have to stop learning, that they can see learning as an adventure, and that they can (pursue) purpose in that. It’s been really special to get to all do it together, and it’s a bonus that we got to encourage each other through it all.”

And that’s not the end of their story. All four plan to advance their education to the next level with Liberty: Isabella and Emilia will study on campus in the fall, pursuing degrees in studio art and elementary education, respectively; Lily will pursue a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies, with focuses in theology and art, online; and their mother will pursue an online Ph.D. in Practical Theology.

“We are looking forward to it with sweet anticipation,” Jane Hill said prior to Commencement. “Being able to have a place to celebrate all of our hard work means a lot. But this is not an end for us; this is really just the beginning.”

Larissa Norman (’06, ’26) of Forest, Va., originally earned a Master of Science in Nursing from Liberty while pregnant with her daughter Skylar (Norman) Burley. Now, 20 years later, Norman celebrated her Doctor of Nursing Practice, again joined by Skylar, who earned a pre-licensure Bachelor of Nursing.

But the family’s connections with Liberty doesn’t stop there. Norman’s other daughter, Adrianna, also earned a bachelor’s in event planning, and her son-in-law, Burley’s husband, Tyler, received his bachelor’s in psychology.

Liberty allows family members to participate in the ceremony of their choice together, regardless of degree, so Burley was able to watch her mother and her husband walk across the stage at her own degree presentation ceremony.

“I love the fact that we get to walk together,” she said. “There are a lot of small steps that brought us here to all be able to have this moment together. We all are hitting the same accomplishment at the same time, even on different levels.”

Her brother, Jacob, earned his bachelor’s in exercise science last May, meaning that five family members were pursuing their degrees at the same time.

“Knowing that we’re all going through the same thing at the same time, it was unique and special,” Skylar Burley said. “We all understood that we were all working and trying to do school at the same time. We had a community (effort) and understanding that if we couldn’t make it to something, or we cancelled plans or said we were tired, the others understood.”