Thirty Years On: Mother and daughter share LIPA milestone

Thirty years after Sara Parker started at LIPA, her daughter Izzy is graduating from the very same Management course. Sara was part of LIPA's first intake of students in 1996, meaning her and Izzy’s celebrations coincide with LIPA's 30th anniversary. 

We spoke to Sara and Izzy about their time at LIPA, the similarities and differences between student life thirty years apart and their favourite memories. 

How does it feel to be celebrating this milestone together, 30 years apart? 

Sara: It’s lovely, I think it became real when we went to LIPA’s 30th anniversary celebrations. Having Izzy with me made it feel so special as we attended together. If I had stood in 1996 and thought of the best-case scenario, I wouldn’t have dreamed of having my daughter with me, but it was just beautiful!  

Izzy: I think it’s the best timing possible for us with the 30th anniversary this year and the fact that I graduate too. When I started, I said “I will be graduating 30 years after you started!”, but now with all the celebrations, it’s made it more exciting. 

Izzy, did your Mum’s decision to study at LIPA influence your decision to study the same course? 

Izzy: Growing up, it just sounded like the best thing ever. Me and Mum would be watching soaps, and mum would be like “I went to LIPA with that midwife”. On every corner of everywhere, it felt like there was somebody from LIPA. LIPA was always in my plans really. I originally wanted to do Music but doing it at LIPA Sixth Form College scratched that itch, and I then went onto LIPA to do the Management course after realising it was a one of a kind in the country. After seeing Mum do it too, I knew of the transferable skills that it offered. 

How were your experiences different, and similar at LIPA? 

Izzy: The number of times I’ve heard Mum say, “Well, it wasn’t like that in my day!” or “We were much more fun!” 

Sara: It was a lot different when I was there! It was the 90’s, the culture was different. Liverpool was a smaller city back then; there weren’t a lot of students doing LIPA’s kind of thing. For the performance students, they were the shining light of their community, they had articles written about them from their local newspaper. 

Izzy: What I really admire about Mum’s year is when they meet up it’s like no time has passed. There are so many more people at LIPA now, but we still have that collaboration. It’s still that community where you go around the building and you know everyone. It seems relatively similar, for example, mum had her lectures in the same room I did! 

Sara: The Management Suite has changed, it didn’t have sofas then, and it was the only place you could access the computers and the internet, which had only just arrived! My first ever email address was a LIPA email address. It was hard to share everything with the new first years when we went into second year, as there was only 20 of us in the first year and we had two rooms to ourselves! But we did have great relationships with the years around us. 

Izzy: In terms of the modules, Mum’s degree is in Enterprise Management, whereas mine doesn’t say Enterprise anymore. I think now, even though there is still focus on creating your own business with the Enterprise module, it is also about going into an organisation. 

Sara, how will it feel to watch Izzy graduate? 

Sara: The whole process has been very emotional!  I cried at her Sixth Form Graduation, so I am a little bit concerned! I expect her LIPA graduation to be amazingly gorgeous. When I was at LIPA, I was always not getting things right, or learning on the job, but with Izzy she has done so much more than you could dream of, and we are so proud of her.  

What were your best memories from LIPA? 

Izzy: Because I went to the LIPA Sixth Form College too, five years of my daily life has involved being in a lecture or class and hearing dancers upstairs rehearsing or walking down the corridor and hearing people singing. I will really miss the vibes of LIPA. That is one of the best bits. I’m at that point now where my friends are moving away, and we are already missing that togetherness that LIPA gives you.  As one of my projects, I helped raise funds for the Spain Tour in 2025, and I held a Ceilidh night for St Patrick’s day, which was so much fun! 

Sara: Some of my best memories are the inauguration and the opening, which were separate events. Socially LIPA was just amazing, the feeling in the bar at the Alumni Reunion is the memory. All that creativity, ambition and joy to be together. Academically, Into the Woods was an amazing production.