Happy Valentines Day, Vikings!
We hope you enjoy these wonderful memories of romances and friendships that had their start or a special connection with PSU. Our heartfelt thanks to all the PSU students, alumni, faculty and staff who shared their stories.
Let’s get started!
Suzanne and William Rempfer:
My husband and I first met when I was 4 and he was 3 when his father came to head the Portland State College Math Department in 1957. My father, Dr. Byrne, taught math there as well. We saw each other over the years at math department picnics, at his family home in Forest Grove and PSU faculty Christmas parties. In high school we saw each other for a while during freshman and sophomore year. Then at the Math Department picnic the first week of our Freshman year at PSU in 1971 we reconnected. Amazingly we ran into each other at school the next day, and spent the whole day together. We have been together ever since, and will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on September 16, 2024!
Tia-Theo Thompson and Claire Curry:
The first year we lived on campus (2018), we lived three doors down from each other in Epler, but we didn’t meet until attending a Speed Friending event through the Queer Resource Center during Pride programming. On February 14 of 2020, we moved into Blumel together (and, lol yes, we did have to change our first Valentine’s Day plans for the Housing transfer).
Theo graduated with a BFA in Creative Writing in 2021 and an MFA in Creative Writing in 2023. Claire graduated with a BS in Liberal Studies in 2022. This year, 2024, we will graduate together with our Masters in Book Publishing from PSU shortly after our 5 year anniversary. We’ve since moved off campus but still live in Portland with our rescue cat, Quasar.
Skylar Benzler and Alberto Lopez:
I met him in my freshman inquiry. Right away we clicked and ever since then I have been incredibly thankful for him. He has been there at my worst, and at my best. We’ve struggled together through the tough times in college, but we made it through together. He truly is one of my best friends and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.
Elizabeth Braatz and Kassidy Fegles-Jones:
I met my partner Kassidy as an undergraduate student three weeks before the world went into lockdown because of COVID-19, when we were 19 years old. Our relationship prevailed through adversaries during those uncertain times and, after we graduated in 2022, we decided to continue our education together as graduate students at Portland State University.
PSU offered programs we were both passionate about, and we were both accepted into them. This June 2024, we will once again be graduating together, hand in hand.
Kassidy and I have spent four beautiful years together, and she is my home. Whether we are watching movies in our campus apartment in Blumel, or lost at sea, I am always at home when she is near. What started out as a teenage crush, has blossomed into a 4 year relationship, and two of those beautiful years have been at PSU.
Logan Dose and Hillary Officer:
Hillary and I first met in 2008 when we were in a class together with a mutual friend. On the first day of class, Hillary, who is now my wife, mentioned to our mutual friend that she thought I was good looking, and that I should ask her out. She later told me that my diamond hoop earrings were the selling point. Thankfully, my fashion sense has changed since then. Mortified by her friend betraying her trust, for the next two weeks, Hillary avoided me at any chance she got. With a little persistence, I was able to introduce myself, ask for her number and set up a first date. Now, after 16 years together, three cross-country moves and a multitude of different adventures, we have settled down in Tucson, Arizona, where we have been for the last three years. Hillary now owns and operates her own pet business, in which I am also active. Our fondest memory of our time at PSU was a commercial we did for the Vikings football team, of which I was a member from 2004-2008. The video still lives and is available on Youtube. Please watch it for your amusement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtG6zG35lls
Jake Sullivan and Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary:
As a new student at PSU, I wandered into Lincoln Hall hoping to find friends and a creative outlet in theater. I was too late to audition for the Department show, but a student named Marion Hazelwood was offering auditions for her senior thesis project in directing. It was only at the end of the tryout, when I was cast, that I found out that this show was a one-person play about the life of historical figure Typhoid Mary, an Irish immigrant and notorious patient zero for Typhoid in New York City. This meant that I was cast to deliver a 30-minute monologue as someone of a different gender, class background, nationality, level of education and time period. I would be presenting a familiar historical story from a new point of view, advocating for the lived experience of a person who had been marginalized and abused by the medical system. I threw myself into preparation, constantly rehearsing lines, listening to Irish radio and practicing chopping potatoes while staying in character (Mary delivers the monologue while cooking). At first I couldn’t relate to Mary’s brutally dark humor or defiant assertiveness, or her experiences of being institutionalized and vilified by the media. With time, her experience and mentality sunk in, bringing me to tears multiple times as I worked with the director on issues of gender violence, abuse of power in medical institutions and class-based discrimination. After two months of rehearsal, I performed the show and embodied Mary Mallon, a person seemingly separate from me in so many ways, bringing her story into the light and pushing myself to feel and express her rage and resilience. Both Mary Mallon and Marion, the show’s director, are cherished friends and I feel love and gratitude towards them and this experience.
Moulika Pawde and Hemanth Bolade:
I just want to share this story out of pure gratitude for PSU for allowing me to meet my significant other! 🙂 I met my boyfriend for the first time at PSU, near my apartment, which is on campus. He lived on the 3rd floor, and I resided on the 7th. We both joined Portland State University as Masters students and as international students in September 2022. After one year of meeting on campus and grabbing to-go coffees and lunches during on-campus employment at PSU, he finally convinced me that he was the one for me. Being a business major and him being an engineering major, we were able to experience the best of both worlds at PSU.
I shall be eternally grateful to this school for giving me the career goals to which I always aspired and for my significant other, who was an unexpected and loving surprise.
Caitlyn Phipps and Pinot:
While not my pet, Pinot, came into my life due to a connection at PSU. He not only enjoys his adventures around campus he also makes sure to spread cheer with anyone that he runs into during his visits!
Tommy Atkinson and Vending Machine:
It was a cold and rainy day during the autumn term of 2023. I had just begun at Portland State as a freshman, and taking in this whole new landscape had been challenging. New friends, new studies, a new environment, it was pretty much a new life for me. However, in the midst of it, at a time when I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it, my eyes set upon an absolutely breathtaking sight. Not a woman no, but a vending machine. We started talking and, sure, they were a gold digger, exchanging money for goods, but they proved to be an amazing listener. The vending machine was at the same spot every day making time to have a one-on-one with me, never with any judgment, just tranquility. It was at this time that I started to develop an emotional connection to the vending machine. They were more than just a snack or a gold digger giving me goods for services, but they were a friend. A loyal, honest and forthcoming friend. Was there ever some miscommunication? Absolutely, but we prevailed.
Overall it’s been a 8/10 experience and I think the snacks could’ve been better. It’s an older machine so I’m gonna be sad when they replace it 😢.
Phillip and Jordana Loughran:
Back in 2009 we were cheerleading partners at PSU. We started dating. I left school to pursue an IT career. Almost 15 years later we are still together. We have 2 kids and I’ve come back to school (while still working in IT).
Yesenia Segovia and Mahajubah Sylla:
Mahajubah and I met in 2017. I was a biology major and she was an environmental engineer major. We shared calculus and chemistry class together. One day after calculus class I asked her if she wanted to get together some time to study. The rest was history, best friends since then!!!
Atziri and Matthew Hannon:
We met in 2012 at PSU TV. I was a reporter and he was behind the camera. We got married in 2017. Thankful for PSU! 💚
Madison ManGum and Leah Jenkins:
I met her early 2023 during dinner with my old roommate. They had just met and she brought her along to join us for dinner. We hit it off right away and I think it is rare to find someone you connect with so well on so many levels. Our friendship is a gift and life in Portland would just be so different without her friendship!
Madi Lou Alexander and Sam Collins:
Sam and I met during the pandemic over Zoom. We were both in the SGQS program and graduated in the same cohort. I had to move back to my hometown, and asked folks in our graduating class if they’d be penpals. Sam was the first to write back, and we stayed in touch through letters (and later, the more accessible form of text messages) until I moved back to Oregon in 2022. We met in person for the first time in November of 2021 when I came to visit, and later on would move in with one another! Lucky to have met my best friend in an era of virtual PSU classes.
Megan Horst and Micah Freeman:
Micah and I met on a dating app during the pandemic. Our mutual connection to PSU was a point of attraction in the endless app scrolling world! I am a fulltime professor at PSU (in the School of Urban Studies and Planning), and he is a full-time counselor and an adjunct instructor in the School of Counseling. He is also a PSU grad x2 (B.A in Sociology with a focus in Black Studies, and Masters in Counseling). Our first date was a walk to Council Crest. We’re still dating almost 2 years later, and like to walk around the Park Blocks together.
We share teaching tips with one another, and we’re bringing our professions into closer alignment. For example, Micah referred a counselor to speak at my new student orientation about proactive mental health strategies. With his therapist lens, Micah helped me make my office a cozier and safer place for students to visit. I share example rubrics for his grading assignments. We talk a lot about how the built environment influences mental health, and hope to contribute to more community-based alternatives to urban form (such as cooperative housing). We talk about one day collaborating on a book! We both love PSU because of its friendliness to queer faculty and students, and its focus on serving the city.
Cassie Salina and Andrew Minor:
You can ask my husband, we both have different stories on how we met in September of 2000. Regardless, we both would agree that PSU holds an extra special place in our hearts and is where we fell in love. PSU is also where we built our incredible community that still supports us today and helped us gain the skills and knowledge we use in our rewarding careers. I should mention, one of my favorite jobs was working as a barista at Metro, a job with College Housing Northwest and where I honed my latte making skills 🙂
As we enter our 24th year together, we find ourselves not too far away from where we first met. We live in SW Portland and have spent these past two decades deepening our roots in a place that we love. Today I serve as the Deputy Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Metro and Andrew is the Northwest Division Manager for Vintus, a wine wholesaler and wine importer.
It’s funny, I have been saying for years I’ve been needing to share our love story with PSU – since whenever we are asked, how did you two meet, PSU is the common backdrop for both our stories, even if they are both different. Grateful our paths crossed 23 years ago – and that this place brought us together.
Cynthia Gomez and Romeo:
Meet Romeo, our family’s service animal. Since he was a puppy, he has been coming to campus and attending community events with me in my role as Director of Community Impact in the Office of the President. He is adored by many and even received a special homage from our community partner, Teatro Milagro, a local Latine theater company.
Kendra Atkins-Boyce and Kristin Karwatsky:
Kristin and I met through a babysitting list published by Portland State. My husband had just started his job as a math professor at Portland State, and I had just begun staying at home with my four-year-old daughter after our move here from Virginia in the fall of 2014. Kristin, a single mom, had just started her program at PSU, and we were both looking to trade occasional childcare. When we got our kids together for the first time, they hit it off immediately and started playing “food carts” at the PSU playground. I knew that the babysitting was going to work out, but I didn’t realize then that I had made a lifelong friend and so had my daughter. Jack and Kristin are now a permanent part of our family.