It’s all in the family: Summerville parents and children all earn degrees from USC School of Journalism

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - As students turn their tassels and mark the completion of college, it will be quite an accomplishment for one Summerville family.

When the youngest child graduates from the University of South Carolina in Columbia this weekend, it will mean every member of the Grimes family has a degree from the USC School of Journalism.

Randy Grimes was the first to graduate in 1985. Adrianne marched in 1988. Their oldest daughter Erika earned her degree in 2018, Morgan was next in 2020, and the youngest child, Jared-Benjamin, gets his degree from the School of Journalism this weekend.

So did the Grimes’ encourage their kids to follow in their footsteps and attend USC?

“Actually, I as their mother did not, but Randy my husband, yes he did,” Adrianne said. “I wanted to make sure they knew they could attend any college, and I told them to think outside the box. But honestly, he (Randy) raised three Gamecocks. We had the 10-foot inflatable Gamecock in our house, that the kids took pictures by, and they spent time in Williams-Brice Stadium as children. So, with all of that, they grew up understanding or perceiving college and higher education as University of South Carolina.”

As for all the kids choosing to study journalism, Adrianne says that sort of came naturally.

“They used to write and produce sitcoms along with Live 5′s Raphael James’ daughter Jaydn,” Adrianne said. “I have sitcoms with these kids. And I used to tell my husband, we should send them to Disney or Nickelodeon because their stuff was really good. They would write the script, shoot, edit, and then act it out. Also, Morgan was writing books, children’s books. As soon as she started writing, she was writing books. So we have several stories she’s written that are in typing paper, folded together in staples.”

“And Erika was writing journals,” Adrianne said. “When Randy was in grad school at George Washington in D.C., she transcribed every trip we took up there. Every time we went to D.C. she wrote about it and journaled about the trip. So it was in their DNA.”

Randy and Adrianne both used to work behind the scenes at Live 5 and that’s where they met and got married.

Randy is a department head at Trident Technical College in the Film and Media Department, continuing to educate future media professionals.

The rest of the family works in public relations with agencies like the S.C Research Authority, Lowcountry Local First, and the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments.

The newest grad is still trying to decide how he wants to make his mark in the world.

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