{"id":25115,"date":"2026-05-12T11:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/?p=25115"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:26:35","slug":"father-son-baylor-duo-to-graduate-together-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2026\/05\/father-son-baylor-duo-to-graduate-together-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Father-son Baylor duo to graduate together this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-25118\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lenz-grads-may26.jpg\" alt=\"L-R, Robbie Lenz with Baylor ring; Allison, Alan and Robbie Lenz in front of Pat Neff Hall; Alan Lenz does a sic 'em with students at his school\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lenz-grads-may26.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lenz-grads-may26-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lenz-grads-may26-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lenz-grads-may26-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Alan Lenz had heard all the stories about Baylor from his wife, Allison (BA &#8217;94). Then the couple sent two of their kids to BU, and he heard even more incredible stories &#8212; enough that Alan felt he was missing out as the only non-Baylor member of his family.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend, Alan and his youngest son, Robbie, will both walk the Ferrell Center stage at <a href=\"https:\/\/commencement.web.baylor.edu\/\">Commencement<\/a>. Robbie (BA &#8217;26) will receive his degree in communication, while Alan (EdD &#8217;26) will receive his doctorate in education (learning and organizational change).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a pretty unique thing to be graduating on the same weekend with my dad,&#8221; says Robbie. &#8220;Not a lot of people can say that they went to school with their dad! I really appreciate that he wanted to do something special like this&#8230; I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;ll be a memory neither of us will ever forget.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the hardest I&#8217;ve ever worked on anything, to get this degree,&#8221; adds Alan. &#8220;It&#8217;s something that I&#8217;m proud of in myself. But I&#8217;m also extremely proud of Robbie, because Baylor is not an easy school, and you&#8217;ve got to work hard. He&#8217;s set that goal and accomplished it, and I&#8217;m super proud of him for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alan completed the EdD program while continuing in his full-time role as head of school at St. Philip&#8217;s Episcopal School in Beeville, Texas (about halfway between San Antonio and Corpus Christi).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They actually had the school set up a pep rally for me on Principal Appreciation Day. They made it &#8216;Dr. Lenz&#8217;s Day,&#8217; and it&#8217;s the official changing of my title. They all wore Baylor t-shirts and colors&#8230; And my wife, who was a twirler at Baylor and has a twirling team here at the school, bought her team Baylor shirts, and they did a little twirling routine for us. They also went around and taught all the kids how to do &#8216;Sic &#8217;em, Bears!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As Robbie graduates, he&#8217;s still deciding between grad school and entering the work force.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m hoping to get a job in a creative field,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I&#8217;m not too picky about what specific job position I get, since my major gives me a lot of options, but I know that I want to work for a company that works with artists. I just really like working with creative people!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now when the family gets together, they can each share their own Baylor memories.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thought it was interesting that my dad wanted to get his doctorate while I was still studying,&#8221; says Robbie. &#8220;I assumed it was because he was feeling left out, but to be honest, he&#8217;s always already felt like an honorary Baylor student with how much he supports us. I suppose he just wanted to make it official!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sic \u2019em, Lenz family!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alan Lenz had heard all the stories about Baylor from his wife, Allison (BA &#8217;94). Then the couple sent two of their kids to BU, and he heard even more incredible stories &#8212; enough that Alan felt he was missing out as the only non-Baylor member of his family. This weekend, Alan and his youngest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-extraordinary-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}