Alumni shared with us how they met their spouse, partner, or best friends ahead of Valentine’s Day 2025.
Leah Barsanti, AB ’13, and Seth Sankary, AB ’13
“We were a match made on Dardick 3! We lived at opposite ends of the hall from one another, and even though we don’t remember the first time we met, we became friends through various floor bonding activities (including a snowball fight that kicked off a prank war for the ages). Two years and several pranks traded back and forth later, we started dating. We’ve now been together 13 years, moved to three different cities together, had a Gatsby-themed wedding that involved two bridesmaids who also lived on Dardick 3, and in October of 2024 we welcome our first child: a boy named Thomas! (Though we did consider naming him Nathan after the dorm that started it all, we ended up going with a family name instead.) He even has a tiny Bears onesie!”
Tanya (Matzat) Bergantz, AB ’95, and Eric Bergantz, BS ’95
“In August 1991, I was assigned to Umrath 3, what had been my mom’s freshman dorm floor. On move-in day, we went to her former room, curious to meet who was living there. At that point, I met who would be my future husband. Later that day at freshman frenzy, freshmen lined up by birthdays, and we were next to each other. Our birthdays were four days apart. He asked me to be his girlfriend, and I was his first kiss that week, but I wasn’t ready for a serious relationship. Instead, we hung out with a larger freshmen floor group. A few months later, Student Life published a picture of the two of us playing Aerobie in the swamp with the caption ‘boy meets girl.’ That April, we tried setting up his roommate with my best friend (with a double date dinner of sandwiches and a tube of raw cookie dough which we ate on the roof of Olin library and a walk to the Esquire) during which we realized we should be dating. We got married a week after we both graduated in 1995 and celebrate our 30th anniversary this May.”
Suellen (Winick) Bergman, AB ’93, and Harris Bergman, BS ’93
“We have Calc II to thank for our 28 years of marriage. We were in different sections of Calc II – Suellen’s being taught by the amazing Professor Wright and mine (barely) taught by a TA. One day, a break in my schedule let me attend one of Professor Wright’s lectures, and I happened to sit next to Suellen. We got to chatting and Suellen asked me for help studying. Months later I asked her out, at a spot around 50 feet south of the underpass.
“A year after graduation, we were both living in Georgia and I hatched a plan to propose to Suellen. I booked flights for us to visit my parents in New York, but ‘to save some money,’ I picked flights with a long layover in St. Louis. I rented a car, and we visited campus. As we walked around, we came to that spot where I had asked her out, and that’s where I popped the question. Now we embarrass our kids by bringing that up every time we all walk by — at a prospective freshman tour, at our daughter’s first-year orientation, and this coming August, at our son’s orientation. We feel truly blessed to have had WashU as a big part of our family story.
“And one other thing: it took around 20 years for me to realize that Suellen never needed my help with calculus — she was a math major after all.”
Emily (Rennard) Chrysler, AB ’96, AM ’96, Julie Etzel, AB ’96, Maya (Metni) Pilkington, AB ’96, Katharine (Hawkes) Scalora, AB ’96, and Bree (Vazzano) Warren, BSBA ’96
“I met my best friends in 1992 freshman year, and those relationships grew and deepened over our 4 years together at WashU. We are scattered all across the United States but have remained strongly connected since graduating in 1996. We’ve been in each other’s weddings, celebrated the birth of each other’s children, attended reunions together, and have supported one another through the loss of parents. We make an effort to get together about once a year, and in September 2024, we took a trip to Italy to celebrate our 50th birthdays. We let our spouses come along, two of whom are also WasU alums. I love the education I received at WashU, but the enduring friendships I made there are perhaps the most precious gift of all.”
Rachel (Rosenfield) Dlatt, MFA ’16, and Bradley Dlatt, JD ’16
“I was a law student in my final semester looking to socialize before heading to the big law firm job awaiting me in Chicago. She was an MFA student working her tail off on multiple paintings and a nearly 100-page master’s thesis looking for an outlet (and a nice boy to buy her pizza). We had our first date in the EMBA Pub in the Knight Center, where we connected over the free popcorn (I was, after all, a broke law student) and shared experiences of a WashU graduate program. At the end of our first date, I walked Rachel back to the Olin Library, where a night of working remained ahead. She gave me a kiss right next to the George Washington statue. Our second date was at Three Kings on the Loop, where she surprised me by asking for my ACT score (she wanted to make sure I wasn’t dumb) … only to become upset when it was higher than hers.
“Fast forward about nine years and we are happily married with a house and a dog on Chicago’s north side. All because of WashU.”
Ashley Dodge, AB ’09, AM ’12, and Lindy Eberhardt, former director of development, Annual Fund, Sam Fox School
“I met my bestie Lindy while working at WashU in Alumni and Development. It’s a great place to meet people who share your values and hope for the future. Lindy is my son’s godmother now. We’re so grateful that WashU brought us together.”
Tracy (Roe) Haffner, AB ’92, MBA ’92, and William Haffner, BSBA ’89, MBA ’92
“Bill and I met in 1987 when he was a junior at Olin (BSBA) and I was a freshman in liberal arts (BA in Psychology). In addition to having fun at the “Rat” and Greek activities, we always supported each other and got our MBAs at Olin, graduating in 1992. If it weren’t for WashU, we wouldn’t have our three children who mean the world to us. Two attended WashU! WashU gave us a great education and an amazing family!”
Emily (Hilton) Hansen, BSBA ’07, MBA ’07, and Adam Hansen, BS ’06
“Adam Hansen and I met at a campus party in 2006, got married in 2009, and just celebrated our 15th anniversary. We drove through St. Louis over this past Thanksgiving weekend and stopped at WashU to show it to our kids!”
Nora (Palitz) Herbstman, BS ’11, MS ’11, and Ted Herbstman, BS ’10
“We met as freshman co-RA’s on Lee 1! Junior year, Ted was already the male RA, and his female co-RA had to step down part way through the year, so the RCD tapped Nora to join mid-year (shoutout to our original matchmaker, Erica Townsend!). We worked well together for the rest of the year, so we were co-RA’s again for senior year. As we spent more time together, Nora realized that we had something special, Ted finally agreed, and the rest is history!”
Lori (Eisenberg) Kilberg, AB ’77, and James Kilberg, BSBA ’78
“The first time I saw my future bride, she was fishing for money in her floppy sweater and equally floppy purse at the Bear’s Den at Wohl Center. She needed four pennies, and I came to her rescue. She then disappeared, going to Spain for her junior year. However, a full year later on February 12, 1977, at an off-campus party in Demun, we saw each other again and wound up talking for hours but didn’t set a date to meet again. Later that week, she tracked me down at the campus Rathskeller, where I tended bar. After her graduation, she went on to Emory for law school, and I followed a year later after proposing the day after graduation. Some 30 years later, our daughter, Katie, met her husband Adam D’Agosistine at a WU Kappa Sig/Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity ‘Divorce’ party. We’ve been married 46 years and Katie and Adam have been married for 14 years.”
Kimia (Ferdowsi) Kline, BFA ’08, and Kenny Kline, BS ’08, MS ’08
“The year was 2007, and my best friend Jon Chen (2008 grad) was in the midst of a love dry spell. One night when we were out, I grabbed his phone, called ‘That hot Kimia girl,’ and handed him the phone. He asked her out, and she declined. But in a moment of cunning, he said, ‘Do you want to go out with Kenny instead?’ She was intrigued and said yes. I ran into her at Bauhaus a few days later and convinced her karaoke would make great first date. We have been inseparable ever since! We now have two kids, with seven more on the way (if my manifesting works).”
Jill (Smith) Kramer, AB ’81, and Steven Kramer, BS ’82, BS ’82; Ariel Kravitz, AB ’19 and Mike Kramer, BSBA ’18, MS ’20
“Steve and I met at our 10-year reunion in 1992. We never knew each other when we were in school. We highly recommend going to reunions! We married in 1993. Our son Mike Kramer married Ariel Kravitz in September 2024. There were more than 25 WashU alums at their wedding!”
Jack Lamarre, AB ’21, and Nate Turk, BSBA ’19
“Nate and I met at WashU in January 2019 at my 20th birthday party. We were set up by mutual friends, who brought Nate to the party. We went on our first date soon after, and had many more at our favorite campus spot, Ibby’s, in the following semester. Nate graduated in 2019 and moved to my hometown, San Francisco. We were long-distance for a short time, before the COVID-19 lockdowns sent me back to the Bay Area from St. Louis. Nate joined my family during quarantine, and after the summer I returned to St. Louis for my senior year, where Nate would visit often and work remotely. After graduating in 2021, we returned to San Francisco and found a wonderful apartment together, where we have lived ever since. Since graduating, we have both greatly enjoyed being involved in the WashU Bay Area alumni community, with many of our WashU friends who knew us as a young couple. We are thrilled to share that we became engaged on New Year’s Day 2025 in Costa Rica, ringing in nearly six years since our first meeting on the South 40, followed by a surprise after party with 35 of our extended family members from St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, and more. We look forward to sharing our love of WashU for many more years to come!”
En Li, PhD ’15, and Jeffrey Beckett, AB ’08
“Jeff and I can’t be more different from each other — as if the Creator posed a challenge on us: if I put these two in the furthest two spots in the world, can they still find each other? Growing up in a Catholic family in the Midwest as one of seven children, Jeff was finishing up the last year of his undergrad and on his way to medical school. Born and raised as an only child in China, it’s during my first year being a graduate student in the history department. We met and sat next each other in the Tokugawa Japanese history seminar in Spring 2008. We studied together in Olin, got snacks in Mallinckrodt, and somehow Jeff could always find me and surprise when I had classes in Busch or TA in Seigle. We dreamed about having a wedding reception in Whittemore, but memories of our toddler son playing at the water fountain at Brookings were just as fond. When I first met Jeff’s family in summer 2008, one of his cousins asked me: ‘Are you his … TA?’ After 17 years, two children, and moves across many cities including Kansas City, Des Moines, and now Dallas, this is no longer a question. The very different two found each other and never lived apart since then.”
Debi (Picker) Rednik, AB ’95, and Josh Rednik, AB ’95
“Josh and I met freshman year and started dating in September of our junior year —- more than 32 years ago! We made it through two years of long-distance during grad school and haven’t looked back since. It’s hard to believe we now have one college graduate about to start her adult life and a college freshman getting used to being on his own (and an eight-and-a-half-year-old labradoodle to keep us company when they’re gone). We are truly grateful for the life we’ve built together and the history we share. And we have WashU to thank!”
Beth Winters, AB ’06, and Joshua Winters, AB ’04
“I like to say that musical theatre brought us together! I was a freshman, and Josh had transferred to WashU as a junior. A friend of mine and a friend of his were both performing in ‘Into the Woods’ (his friend was The Prince, my friend was the tree) and a big group of us went out to see the movie musical ‘Chicago.’ That was the first time we met, and there wasn’t a lot of room in the car, so we were squished together in the back seat. We both thought the other was cute. We kept seeing each other during group outings with this group of friends, and one night we went to a club. He was dancing with a girl and looked unhappy, so I rescued him. We’ve been together now for 21 years, married for 11, and we have an 8-year-old daughter named Ava.”
Katie Wojcik, MPH ’23, and Quinlan Batcheller, MPH ’23
“We met at the Brown School during our Master of Public Health program! We first became Facebook friends after meeting through our cohort’s incoming student page, and we met in person once our program started. We were working towards the same concentration, so we had most of the same classes. During the first year of the program, we became incredibly close friends. We’d study for classes together and hang out outside of school, too, with some of our other Brown School friends! At the end of our first year, after spending hundreds of hours together, we realized that we had feelings for each other. Though we were initially nervous to risk the close friendship we had built, we decided to take the leap and started dating. The rest is history! After a wonderful summer break together, we decided to move in together for our second year of the program. We spent the entirety of the second year together exploring St. Louis, going on hiking trips, and planning for our future together. At the end of our second year, right before graduation, we got engaged! Quinlan proposed to Katie on a hiking trip on top of a cliff overlooking the beautiful Ozark National Forest. After graduation, we moved across the country to Washington, D.C. together to work for the National Institutes of Health, and we are currently planning our wedding and are set to get married in July!”
