IU Kokomo commencement will feature a family affair

What would it be like for a father and daughter not only to graduate from college together, but walk across the stage one after the other, and be seated next to each other during the ceremony?

“It’s going to be awesome,” said Shawn Eisaman, with a mischievous grin.

His daughter, Lexi Eisaman, isn’t as sure.

“It’s going to be embarrassing,” she said, hinting that she expects him to entertain everyone around them with dad jokes.

The pair will find out for sure at Indiana University Kokomo’s May 13 graduation when both will graduate with Bachelor of General Studies degrees.

IU Kokomo has become a family tradition for the Eisamans from Peru. Shelly Eisaman, wife to Shawn and mother of Lexi, graduated from the campus with a degree in hospitality and tourism in 2022, and now serves as coordinator of accessibility.

Lexi Eisaman enrolled in 2020, soon after graduating from high school, and Shawn followed a year later. The three only overlapped briefly, as Shelly’s last semester was Shawn’s first as a returning student. He had earned credits years earlier at another school before going to work. Watching his wife and his older daughter, Isabella (who attended a different school), complete their degrees inspired him to return.

“I’ve always wanted to come back,” he said. “Watching Shelly and Isabella graduate, I really wanted to finish.” With his previous credits, he came in as Lexi Eisaman’s classmate. Most of his classes were online, and they shared many of them.

“I got to call him by his first name, because it feels weird to call him Dad in class,” Lexi Eisaman said. She also worked on campus like her mother, but not in the same office.

“That would be a little too much ‘us’ time,” she said.

They expect the family IU Kokomo tradition to continue, as Shelly and Shawn have two more sons in high school who plan to enroll.

Father and daughter both chose general studies degrees, Shawn because of the flexibility, and Lexi because her career goal is to work in a theme park, and the degree allowed her to explore many aspects of that field. She also earned minors in criminal justice and informatics.

“I didn’t know specifically what I wanted to do in a theme park career, so this left options open,” she said. “I was interested in theme park sustainability and then started taking criminal justice classes because I was interested in theme park security,” Lexi Eisaman said. “I’m taking a French class now, because French is one of the official Disney languages.”

She also recently started an internship with Disability Indiana, which provides her a mentor who is a business professional with a disability similar to her autism, to prepare her for a successful transition into her career.

She’s excited to move to Orlando in August to work in the Disney College Program for six months. After that, she hopes to stay with a full-time job and eventually work in security. She gained an inside look at Disney security during a Kokomo Experience and You (KEY) trip to the Walt Disney World Resort in one of her criminal justice classes.

“My goal has always been to work toward theme parks,” she said. “I just love the environment, and how people interact in the parks.”

Shawn Eisaman’s completed degree could help him further his career at Aptiv, where he works as a contractor in automotive testing.

“It opens up more doors,” he said.

Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.