{"id":158967,"date":"2025-05-01T14:47:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=158967"},"modified":"2025-05-01T15:07:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T19:07:59","slug":"mother-and-daughter-to-celebrate-graduation-together-at-wright-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2025\/05\/01\/mother-and-daughter-to-celebrate-graduation-together-at-wright-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother and daughter to celebrate graduation together at Wright State"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_158979\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2025\/05\/01\/mother-and-daughter-to-celebrate-graduation-together-at-wright-state\/kristina-bringman-and-chloe-johnston-74158_016\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-158979\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-158979\" class=\"size-large wp-image-158979\" src=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2025\/05\/Kristina-Bringman-and-Chloe-Johnston-74158_016-508x339.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"307\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-158979\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mother-daughter graduates Kristina Bringman, left, and Chlo\u00eb Johnston will celebrate back-to-back commencement ceremonies at Wright State University. Bringman will receive her master&#8217;s degree on Friday, with Johnston following in her footsteps during Saturday&#8217;s ceremony. (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When Chlo\u00eb Johnston receives her diploma at Wright State University\u2019s commencement ceremony this Saturday, she\u2019ll have an unusual cheerleader in the crowd \u2014 her mother, Kristina Bringman, who will have earned her own degree from Wright State just one day earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really proud of her. She&#8217;s worked so hard,\u201d Bringman said tearfully, looking at her daughter, Johnston.<\/p>\n<p>With equal emotion, Johnston replied, \u201cI\u2019m really proud of her. As long as I can remember, Mom had talked about going back to school. It&#8217;s awesome to see her get her dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This weekend, the Huber Heights residents will achieve a rare milestone as they both receive degrees from Wright State: Bringman, a <a href=\"https:\/\/liberal-arts.wright.edu\/humanities-and-cultural-studies\/master-of-arts-in-english\">master\u2019s in English literature<\/a>, and Johnston, <a href=\"https:\/\/liberal-arts.wright.edu\/humanities-and-cultural-studies\/bachelor-of-arts-in-history\">bachelor\u2019s degrees in history<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/liberal-arts.wright.edu\/social-sciences-and-international-studies\/bachelor-of-arts-in-political-science\">political science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They will join nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/28\/nearly-1460-students-to-graduate-at-wright-states-spring-commencement-ceremonies\/\">1,460 fellow graduates celebrating their academic achievements<\/a> at the Nutter Center:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Graduate Ceremony: Friday, May 2, 7 p.m.<\/li>\n<li>Undergraduate Ceremony: Saturday, May 3, 10 a.m.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What makes their story particularly remarkable is that this shared graduation weekend wasn&#8217;t meticulously planned. As Johnston said, \u201cthe stars sort of aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Johnston, a 2020 high school graduate, had initially planned to attend a university farther from home, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, decided to stay close to home and enrolled at Wright State.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Bringman, who earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in English with a concentration in professional writing from Wright State in 2022, continued her academic journey by pursuing a master&#8217;s degree at the university. Her progress temporarily paused while she helped her father and sister care for her mother, who was recovering from surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Johnston\u2019s initial graduation timeline extended when she added political science as a second major, pushing her ceremony to this year. Bringman&#8217;s graduation shifted from last fall to this spring, creating their dual celebration.<\/p>\n<p>Johnston is also looking forward to graduating in front of family, friends and a full audience after experiencing a pandemic-limited commencement ceremony in high school.<\/p>\n<p>They have found multiple ways to connect throughout their overlapping time at Wright State. Both serve as writing coaches in the Writing Center and have made time to meet on campus between classes and commitments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes I would ask her, \u2018Want to get sushi at the Union?\u2019\u201d Bringman said. \u201cIt was great to have that extra time with her that I didn&#8217;t think I was going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of sharing time at Wright State with her mother, Johnston said, \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After graduation, both women will embark on new academic and professional ventures.<\/p>\n<p>Bringman will begin an online master&#8217;s degree in creative writing for fiction at the University of Texas, El Paso. She will continue her work as a publications and communications specialist for WORDBridge Now, a teacher-enrichment program, while maintaining editing roles at Decolonial Passage literary magazine and The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies.<\/p>\n<p>Johnston will remain at Wright State to pursue a master\u2019s degree in international and comparative politics.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_158974\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2025\/05\/01\/mother-and-daughter-to-celebrate-graduation-together-at-wright-state\/kristina-bringman-and-chloe-johnston-74158_006\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-158974\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-158974\" class=\"size-large wp-image-158974\" src=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2025\/05\/Kristina-Bringman-and-Chloe-Johnston-74158_006-508x339.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"307\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-158974\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kristina Bringman and her daughter Chlo\u00eb Johnston have found multiple ways to connect throughout their overlapping time at Wright State, working in the Writing Center and meeting regularly on campus.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Both mother and daughter credit Wright State for providing them with valuable growth opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t say enough good things about the English department,\u201d Bringman said. \u201cThe whole program is solid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Johnston agreed, saying, \u201cWright State has given me a lot of opportunities for success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She highlighted her experience with Alpha Xi Delta sorority, which helped develop her leadership skills, and her participation in the award-winning Model United Nations program. Johnston earned individual awards at both the 2024 and 2025 National Model U.N. Conferences in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI cannot sing the praises of Model U.N. enough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The program challenged her to conduct research and present herself diplomatically, pushing her out of her comfort zone.<\/p>\n<p>After representing Spain in 2024, Johnston and her classmates were further challenged by representing Russia at the 2025 national conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a little more difficult, a whole different experience,\u201d she said. \u201cIt got me out of my comfort zone even further.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bringman agreed with her daughter\u2019s assessment of Wright State, noting that students are provided \u201clots of opportunities for success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those opportunities have culminated in another shared experience this weekend as Johnston and Bringham celebrate their academic achievements together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mother-daughter graduates Kristina Bringman and Chlo\u00eb Johnston will celebrate back-to-back commencement ceremonies at Wright State University this weekend. <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2025\/05\/01\/mother-and-daughter-to-celebrate-graduation-together-at-wright-state\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":158977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,2107,2060,725,4863,747,715,4855,2061],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-commencement","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies","category-undergraduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158967"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158990,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158967\/revisions\/158990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}