Father and Son Graduate With Same Degree, Walk Together at Spring 2026 Commencement

Rather than a child walking in his parents’ footsteps, the Cannons did things a little differently.

During the College of Applied Arts May commencement ceremony at Texas State University, Jeff Cannon walked the stage with his son Tyler as they both received a master’s degree in Organization, Workforce, and Leadership Studies (OWLS). Tyler also earned a certificate of professional ethics through the Department of Philosophy.

Tyler’s sister, Haleigh, was the first in the Cannon family to graduate at TXST when she completed her bachelor’s degree in agriculture back in 2020. That influenced him to want to attend TXST as he explored his options while in high school.

“I visited her a couple of times in her apartments, and she took me around campus and showed me the local spots,” Tyler said. “Seeing her go through this university and seeing her succeed here made me feel like I could do the same.”

Tyler, who received a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and business administration from TXST in 2023, chose to come back for graduate school because he wasn’t quite sure where he wanted his career to go. He also happened to know someone else in the OWLS program—his father.

Jeff received his bachelor’s degree from American Military University online through his career in the Air Force. It took the lifelong Texan two decades to complete his degree due to being deployed several times. But even through those 20 years, he continued to hold on to a dream of eventually graduating from a university in Texas.

His other inspiration was seeing Haleigh and Tyler succeed at TXST.

“You often hear folks say, ‘Follow in your parents' footsteps,’” Jeff said. “I feel like I’m following in my children's footsteps. I was excited to set some goals that my grandchildren or my children's children can look at and say, ‘Grandpa went to the same university that mom and dad did.’ I think that’s neat.”

A tour of the Lonesome Dove Collection that Tyler took him on at The Wittliff Collections also sold him.

Jeff and Tyler shared several online classes together and had similar coursework through OWLS. Because of that, they would often help each other out with various projects and homework. Jeff was also one semester ahead of Tyler, so he could help him with the process of forming research proposals and writing literature reviews.

“But on the other hand, he was always shouting me out in every discussion post,” Tyler said. “Like, ‘I'm here with my son. Welcome to the class, everybody.’ That kind of dad stuff. He's that guy in the class who is always the first one to complete the discussion posts and writes these detailed messages to everybody. That was kind of funny. A little embarrassing, but it was fun.”

“As a parent, you always see your kids as kids,” Jeff said. “They're always the five-year-old who used to want to do everything with you, but now they're 25 years old and they're doing all this cool stuff and answering questions from the professor and the students that are very thorough. Seeing Tyler interact with his peers like that—it was neat to see my son do that.”

The Cannons recently earned OWLS awards and were honored at the program’s annual banquet. Jeff earned the Graduate Leadership Award, and Tyler earned the Graduate Interdisciplinary Research Award.

Jeff still works for the Air Force but as a civilian since he retired from active service in 2017. He was seeking a managerial position, but he was missing a few crucial things on his resume that a manager needs to step into that role.

Halfway through his degree, a position opened that he was able to land since he gained experience using organizational management processes and workflows through projects in OWLS.

Tyler is currently in the job market and hopes to start a career soon in project management or human resources through a state job in Texas.