– Fall 2025 Grad Spotlight | Keli Loveland and Shelby Loveland –
Keli Loveland didn’t intend to graduate college with her daughter, Shelby. But she wouldn’t have had it any other way. On Saturday, Dec. 13, the mother and daughter duo both crossed the stage cum laude earning their Bachelor of Arts degrees at the FedExForum becoming Tiger alumnae together.
Although they are both graduated with honors, their collegiate journeys didn’t begin that way.
Before coming to the University of Memphis, Keli served in the Army, then became a stay-at-home mom turned graphic designer. She decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in strategic media and first enrolled with UofM Global in February 2020, taking advantage of the Credit for Prior Learning which offers adult and non-traditional students the unique opportunity to petition for college credit for the training and skills they received during their careers.
“We all know what happened in 2020, so our entire household was on lockdown and in school, we were all in some form of school during that time together,” Keli said. “We didn’t start out on this journey to graduate together because we had our own path that we were on…it just so happens that we came back together during this time.”
A broken foot led Keli to a different trajectory and to her current role as an administrative associate for the UofM Department of Journalism and Strategic Media.
“After taking classes online, I told my academic advisor that I wanted to take a class on campus. I wanted to see what all the hype was about,” Keli said.
“And that conversation led to me getting the job in the department. I came to campus and fell in love with the people, the atmosphere, everything about it. And it was so nice to see Shelby pop into my office a couple of days a week and to see her across campus.”
Shelby’s journey began at Southwest Tennessee Community College, and she was able to transfer to the UofM after earning her associate’s degree.
Working full time as an adult services librarian at the Memphis Public Library and juggling three majors (Psychology, German, and Criminal Justice) — Shelby was the only German major graduate in the winter commencement — kept Shelby busy. She liked that she could easily walk over from Jones Hall to visit and chat with her mom.
“She’s always been there for me,” Shelby said. “She’s always been pushing for me, just teaching me along the way, little things and even things that’s never shaped as a lesson, but there’s always a lesson in it. Gosh, I just really like her. She’s pretty cool and someone I’ve always looked up to as far as like power and strength and taking care of yourself and self-sustainability.”
Keli echoes those same sentiments.
“We are each other’s biggest cheerleaders,” Keli said. “I think she’s always felt that I’ve been her biggest cheerleader and that’s all I wanted out of life is to have my kids know that I love them and want them happy.”
Shelby said she enjoyed having the opportunity to study together and to see the relationship her mom has built with her college community, which is a lot alike to their family at home.
“She has a different relationship with the members of her college than she does with me and my siblings, but it’s also the same,” Shelby said. “She is still goofing off and messing around, poking fun…she does that with us too.”
Keli said she’s kind of the mom of the department.
“All the students come to me and talk to me and ask me stuff and we talk and we share,” she said. “And it’s nice to sort of be that role for them, especially for those whose moms aren’t here. Shelby knows, I’ve always taken care of everybody else first.”
The mother-daughter-duo also had a kismet moment — both getting to travel to Germany as part of study abroad. Shelby traveled through the Department of World Languages and Literatures to Eichstätt, Germany and received the Kendra Carter scholarship for her trip, and Keli through the Journalism and Strategic Media partnership with Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
When asked how they planned to celebrate, Shelby said, “My friends kept asking me, ‘So is the graduation party at your house or your mom’s?’”
