Stories of relationships that blossomed through Marquette University
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re shedding light on love stories with a special Marquette connection.
Katie and Steven Loke, H Sci ’19 and ’18
Steven and I met at Marquette in the anatomy lab in 2016 and have been inseparable ever since! We got engaged in front of the Joan of Arc Chapel in 2019, and (after having to delay because of the pandemic) we got married in Milwaukee in 2021! We are so grateful that Marquette brought us together!
Jack and Cassidy (Yarwood) Muglia
Near the end of a hectic freshman year, we were excited for the spring weather to come around. It was an especially cold spring that year and we were both down in the dumps. I was studying in the library when suddenly Cassidy bumped into my table and spilled her coffee everywhere! I instinctively jumped right up to help her and spilled my coffee all over my books. We both were on the floor laughing and started getting to know each other. This went on for hours until the library’s closing time. I walked her home and asked for her number. The rest is history! We have been married for over 30 years now and have four lovely children at our home in Lamont, Illinois. You never know who you’ll find at Marquette University.
Abby Cole, Comm ’16, and Patrick McGinn, Arts ’14, MBA ’19
Although we didn’t meet in college, it was our shared passion for Marquette that ultimately brought us together. We met via an online dating app in 2021, and two years later we’re engaged! We still remember exchanging stories on that first date at Black Sheep in Walker’s Point, about which residence hall we had lived in, about our favorite classes and professors, Murphy’s vs. Caffrey’s. We realized we had both studied Spanish and participated in service learning and MARDI GRAS trips. We both loved Marquette basketball and singing the fight song on National Marquette Day. And while we overlapped on campus for two years, we didn’t actually meet until years later as two single alumni living in Milwaukee. We feel lucky to share these special memories and to both be able to call Marquette home. Now, who do we gotta call to have Iggy make an appearance at our wedding in fall 2024?!
Michelle Vuong, Nurs ’19, and Jordan Obert, Eng ’19
Jordan and I met through mutual friends freshmen year of college at Marquette in McCormick. We started dating sophomore year of college and have been in love ever since! We lived in Milwaukee after we graduated in 2019 and got married this past September. Jordan’s parents are Marquette alumni and our siblings are as well. We have and will continue to have a Marquette family!
Mary Bozsik, H Sci ’17, and Jerry Zucca, Eng ’18
We met freshman year in English class. Ten years later, we’re married.
Rodrigo Martinez, Eng ’13, and Maria Munoz, Arts ’14
Rodrigo and I were first introduced to each other in 2011 in Schroeder Hall thanks to mutual friends and multicultural Greek life. Little did we know, we both grew up within 10 minutes from each other in well known Chicago neighborhoods Little Village and Pilsen! Our journeys led us to Marquette where our friendship later flourished into a relationship. Eleven years later we just celebrated our first year as a married couple with a beautiful family. We are eternally grateful for the support system and friendships we built thanks to our time at Marquette!
Emily Bukowski, L ’17, and Joey Bukowski, Arts ’15, L ’18
We met in our international dispute resolution course in 2017. The class took a trip to Israel over spring break. A few weeks before I was scheduled to graduate and move home to Nebraska to take the bar, Joey and I went on out first date. I moved home for the summer, but took a leap of faith and got a job in Milwaukee. The rest is history. We got engaged in June 2020. We had our ceremony at Gesu in September 2021. Joey’s parents had been married there 30 years earlier, which made it that much more special.
Richard Schermerhorn, Eng ’64, Patricia Winchester, Arts ’64
My parents, Richard (Dick) Schermerhorn and Patricia Winchester met at Marquette during their junior year. They were engaged during their senior year and married the year they graduated, 1964. They now have a huge Marquette legacy. Both of their daughters attended Marquette and married Marquette grads. As of today, they have four Marquette grandchildren graduates, a freshmen grandson at Marquette, and a granddaughter that has committed to attend Marquette next year!
Zoe Zeitler, Bus ’19, and Hayden Johnston, Nurs ‘19
We met in 2017 during our sophomore year at a party on 17th and Kilbourn. After graduating we stayed in Milwaukee for three more years, and got married in 2021. We recently moved to Los Angeles but continue to cheer on Marquette basketball for every game!
Caleb Blackmur, Comm ’16, and Allison (Achtel) Blackmur, Nurs ’16
Caleb and Allison met in McCabe Hall and started dating on Valentine’s Day in 2014. They were married in 2020 and now have two sons — Parker and Scotty!
Ariana Moshref, Comm ’16, Thomas Wright, Bus Ad ’16, Grad ’18
We met during syllabus week of 2014, became and stayed friends for three years, started dating in 2017, got engaged in 2021 and are getting married at the Gesu in October 2023. Ring Out Ahoya!
Grant, Bus Ad ’18, and Hannah Runnoe, H Sci ’18
We met during a Senior Bar crawl first semester senior year and have been celebrating since. Grant’s job took him to Chicago and Hannah followed attending Midwestern University, continuing her educational goal of becoming a cardiac physician. We married last August in Milwaukee reuniting our Marquette squad for the wedding!
Eric Balle, H Sci ’17 and Megan (Fagalde) Balle, H Sci ’17
We met our sophomore year as BISC students and started off just as friends. I was also a DR at his dorm and saw him frequently. Our first date was on his birthday, he was studying for an exam and I made him take a break for dinner at Schroeder. Many dates, years and graduations later, we finally got married in October 2022. We live in Indianapolis and love to cheer on Marquette at the Butler game every year!
Traci Huntemann-Piatt A&S ’87, Grad ’90, and Joseph J Piatt, A&S ’89
We met through Campus Ministry’s MAP program. We both were asked to serve on the Student Advisory Board, and I remembered seeing photos of him from our host during the MAP trip to WV after him. When I saw him in our first MAP-SAT meeting, I said, “Hey, I know you! You were in Morgantown!” I thought he was cute, and also if he volunteered to do MAP, then we were ahead of the game by sharing some core values of faith and service. We worked on a project together that gave me the opportunity to ask him out — although he didn’t realize that I did! We met for our first date at the Chancery on the East Side, thinking if things didn’t work out, I could go home on my own. We spent hours talking, then went to MU’s campus bars and hung out for a few more hours. I knew then that I could talk to him forever. We married less than two years later, and have been together for over 32 years. Our faith life has been at the center of our relationship since the beginning. We have three children: a married daughter, a son living in Brussels, Belgium, and a son at Belmont University in Nashville. Marquette is not only our alma mater, it’s the beginning of our faith journey together and an amazingly special part of our history. And continues to be! What better date night that an MU basketball game! Ring Out Ahoya!
Rachel (Rouse) Malak, Comm ’14, Grad ’16, and Peter Malak, Eng ’14, Grad ’16
My husband and I met at Preview the summer before our freshman year at Marquette when we were in the same group. We started dating shortly after arriving on campus in the fall, water skiied for Marquette together, stayed for our master’s degrees at Marquette, got engaged at St. Joan of Arc Chapel and got married at Gesu on Marquette’s campus in 2016. We now have two future Golden Eagles — Eliza age 3 and George age 1 — that love to attend Marquette basketball games and visit campus.
Etain McKinney, ’22, and Barrett Hall, ’24
We met on the MU sailing team in 2021. The team is super close so we started off as best friends and eventually started dating. We are both still at Marquette for grad school and undergrad!
Dan, Bus Ad ’05, and Samantha La Nuez, Bus Ad ’05, ’06
We met outside McCormick Hall as freshmen and began talking over AOL instant messenger (I am sure current students have never heard of it!) during summer break and started dating sophomore year and never looked back! We made Milwaukee our home and Marquette basketball is still a passion!
Jack Dolan, Eng ’18, and Erin (Church) Dolan, Nurs ’17
We met at Marquette in the spring of 2014 and starting dating fall of 2017. We both started our careers in Milwaukee, then during Covid moved to Denver. Jack popped the question at Veterans Park in August 2021. We were married on Aug. 13, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, surrounded by many fellow Marquette alumni (friends and family).
Delaney (Cox) Bourne, Nurs ’13, and Katherine Bourne, Arts ’11
I met my now wife Katie in 2009 when I joined the Marquette women’s rugby team as a freshman. She was a junior at the time and one of the captains of the team. We started dating in 2012 and were married in Milwaukee in 2017 surrounded by all of our friends and (Marquette) family. Thank you Marquette for bringing us together!
Bill, Jour ’88, and Mary Rose Armstrong, Jour ’88
We met working together on Yearbook staff as seniors. We both had significant others at the time, but became great friends. After college we lived near each other in Chicago and hung out doing fun things. One thing led to another… and 30 years later (married over 25 of them), we’re still great friends and working together on life and laughter.
Amelle Aldurra, Arts ’19, and Chase Hawkins, Arts ’19
We met thanks to some mutual friends and campus ministry our sophomore year! We’ve been together since then and got married this summer after five and a half years together!
Monica Geiser, H Sci ’20, DPT ’22, and Alex Strack, Eng ’20
Alex and I are both 2020 grads, with the pandemic ending our bachelor’s degree time at MU. I had two more years at Marquette and Alex started working around the Milwaukee area. We had actually never met on campus but had mutually paired on a dating site in 2021, with Marquette being one of the many things we had in common! After meeting we realized we had mutual friends and had been at the same place/events at the same time and had never met! I couldn’t believe such a fantastic man was on the internet. Alex put up with dating a grad student for a whole year — through multiple states and test blocks, and I put up with exciting talks about storm sewers. We moved to Illinois after I graduated (both hired by Marquette alums) and now make it nights out to convince local restaurants to turn on Marquette basketball. We recently got married and are planning a reception two blocks from Marquette’s campus to make more memories on campus, this time together!
Bobbie Jo Tennies, Nur ’92, and Paul Blaskowski, Arts ’93
We met on Halloween 1989 at the Navy ROTC house party. Every Valentine’s Day, we still get a heart-shaped pizza like we started getting from Rocky Roccocos on Wells Street in 1990. We were married in Gesu Church the weekend after graduation. This year will be our 30th anniversary.
Sofia Flores, Eng ’20, and José Miguel Marquez, Eng ‘21
We met through mutual friends in the spring of 2019 while studying in Haggerty Hall and started a great friendship from there. By the spring of 2020 we started dating. After graduating, Sofia got a job in Dallas working for Abbott. Miguel followed her to Dallas and also found work at Abbotts. In October of 2022, we got engaged and are set to be married in April of 2024!
Tyler Kapustka, Comm ’15, and Lucy (Kastonek) Kapustka, Comm ’15
It all started freshman year in Introduction to Comm in Johnston Hall’s large auditorium. Being assigned seats alphabetically, and our last names being so close to each other, we ended up across the aisle from each other. I am a shy person and wasn’t talking to many people but that didn’t stop Lucy from commenting on how cool the Chuck Taylors I was wearing were. This started a friendship where we shared a love of Chuck Taylors, seeing pop punk shows at The Rave and getting weekly chicken parm from Schroeder. Our friendship grew stronger and stronger over freshman and sophomore years and before we knew it, we were dating junior year. Our time at Marquette came to an end with our 2015 graduation but our relationship was going strong. We continued through short and long distances before moving in together in Denver for Lucy to pursue her master’s. While living in Colorado it was time for the big ask… will you marry me? On top of Berthoud Pass at a little over 11,000 feet she said yes! We are now happily approaching our one-year wedding anniversary in April.
Katie Starsky, Ed ’19 Luke Wagner, Bus Ad ’16
We met at daily Mass at the historic St. Joan of Arc Chapel. Luke held the door open for me and we began chatting after Mass. Our faith and love brought us together as we got married on July 31, 2021, and had our first daughter, Rose, this fall. Marquette is deeply rooted in our family and we look forward to carrying on our love and legacy!
Brendan Franz, Eng, and Abigail Gableman, Ed
Bumped into each other on the Murphy’s dance floor. Inseparable since.
Kate Shanahan, Arts ’18, and Ben Lamb, Arts ’18
Ben and Kate met in biology class during their first week of freshman year in Cramer Hall 104J. Almost eight years later, on National Marquette Day 2022, Ben proposed to Kate in that very classroom! The couple is getting married this September and is SO thankful to Marquette University for bringing them together!
Amber Stratz, Arts ’15, and Greg Stratz, Arts ’15
How did my husband and I meet? In short, the AMU at Marquette, senior year. Greg was late to turn in a midterm paper and I was printing off 100 pages of notes for a psychology class for a test that was two weeks from then. We made small talk, went our separate ways and then ended up running into one another that same weekend, then for a basketball game, and then to our now favorite Italian restaurant (Tenutas). We have lived in Milwaukee (now Whitefish Bay) with our labradoodle since graduating in 2015 and got married October 2022 at Gesu. The AMU printer will forever have a special place in our hearts (and now in our home, because you can bet that we have a photo in front of that printer from our wedding day).
Kate (Sternke) Tretow, Arts ’10, and Zac Tretow, Arts ’10
Marquette has been with us throughout our relationship. We first met as interns in Sen. Herb Kohl’s office as a part of the Les Aspin Center Kleczka Program. We got engaged at St. Joan of Arc, took wedding photos in front of the chapel and took our son, Jack, there for his first visit to campus.
