Mason is rightfully proud of the educations earned by its students, but also recognizes that experiential learning can be the most important. Meet some CHSS alumni who had the experience of meeting their soulmates as they worked toward their degrees.
Daniel Gassel and Najeeba Gootee Gassel
Daniel Gassel and Najeeba Gootee Gassel met on the third floor of Wilson residence hall in President’s Park. Najeeba was collecting signatures on a birthday card for a floormate when she knocked on Daniel’s door. “I got up and opened it,” he recalled. “She was walking away when I answered, but once she turned around and I saw her for the first time I remember thinking, ‘Wow, is she gorgeous!’ From that point on the rest was history.
“Her first impression of me was that I was cute, my eyes were crazy blue, and wondering why I hadn’t opened the door faster.”
Their favorite Mason memory was a chilly one. “During our last semester, we got a huge snowstorm,” said Daniel. “It dropped a couple of feet of snow, causing classes to be canceled. We hung out together all day and later that night we got all bundled up in our snow gear and ventured outside. We made our way to the quad--just the two of us--and began having a little snowball fight, jumping in fresh piles of snow, and making snow angels. It was just for an hour or two, but it was so nice just the two of us, with no one else around, fooling around and having fun.”
George Mason even played a role in their engagement. Following an annual tradition of recreating their first date with dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, D.C., they took a pedicab to Jefferson Memorial and to the nearby George Mason Memorial. “I had two photographers hiding and waiting for us,” said Daniel. “We walked over in front of George and that’s where I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me... I figured it was the perfect spot to bring our journey full circle.”
Stacey Wojciech Alpern and Dave Alpern
Stacey Wojciech Alpern and Dave Alpern met a week before the start of Stacey’s freshman year. “We met at his work, Sunshine House surf shop in Fair Oaks Mall,” she said. “I was at the Sears with my large family getting a family portrait, and afterwards my brother and I left to drop into Sunshine House. I saw Dave behind the skate counter, he came up to my brother to ask if I was his sister or his girlfriend, and the rest is history.”
It was “love at first sight!” Stacey added. “I thought he was so cute and cool.”
In addition to sharing classes, Stacey recalls favorite memories around the Fairfax campus: “The Rat, the quad, the Field House (I was an intramural volleyball ref), being a part of all the Phi Kappa Sigma events and happenings (Dave was a founding father).” But they also enjoyed quieter times spent together. "On many occasions we'd sit and talk on a bench in the quad or outside one of the lecture halls about life, dreams, likes/dislikes, our personalities, and most of all our shared faith,” she said.
Their engagement was a celebration of their Mason memories, said Stacey. “Dave picked me up on my birthday in his red convertible Volkswagen Rabbit and promised a long and romantic day to celebrate me. He popped in a mix tape he made for the day, full of our favorite songs and clues he narrated that ended up taking us to places that were meaningful throughout our relationship. It was like a memory lane treasure hunt! Mason was a huge part of that day...and here we are together 34 years later!”
Cyndy Bayless Oliver and Jeremy Oliver
Cyndy Bayless Oliver graduated with a degree in history, but not before making a big impression in the School of Business, where she met husband-to-be, Jeremy. “We were in same management class our junior year,” she said. “When he saw me plop my huge accounting book on my desk, he said something like, ‘Ew, you’re in accounting?’ I responded, ‘What ‘s your major?’ When he answered, ‘Finance,’ I replied, ‘So you couldn’t hack accounting?’ He laughed and later said that he knew he loved me in that very moment.”
Cyndy and Jeremy became study partners and shared memories around Fairfax, notably Jeremy’s 21st birthday celebration at P.J. Skidoos. “I knew he was the one when we became inseparable after our first date,” said Cyndy.
When it came to their engagement, it was back to business. After speaking with Cyndy’s father in early December, “he said he couldn’t wait to ask to marry me and there was no way he’d be able to hold the ring until Christmas. I happened to be heading to campus to study for the GRE that afternoon, and he asked if he could come with me. He tagged along and he insisted we drive to the Aquia building, where that management class had been held. I was confused but I obliged. He pulled out the index card I originally wrote my phone number on and the ring. He said he was glad he asked for my number that day and now he wanted to ask me to marry him. I was in such shock and overjoyed, I don’t remember if I even ended up studying that afternoon.”
Avery Craine Powell and Andrew James Craine Powell
James first saw Avery at his transfer orientation where Avery was a Patriot Leader, and recalled his first impression that “he was cute and intelligent.” Avery’s first impression was that James was interesting and he wanted to get to know him more.
Their involvement with Alpha Phi Omega strengthened their bond; months later, they met in the Johnson Center while Avery was watching Netflix on his laptop (not studying, he noted). Both were in the area of the building where Alpha Phi Omega hung out because James was pledging the fraternity in which Avery was already a brother. Avery also gave James a ride home from a fraternity event where they talked more.
Though neither of them report "an epiphany moment,” they knew that they were in for the long haul. "After several years of dating (some through long distance), our love for one another grew and we realized we wanted to make a long-term commitment. While living in Burlington, Vermont, James proposed to Avery on the summit of Camel’s Hump” in the Green Mountains.
Anne Mulvaney Baker and Griffin Baker
Anne Mulvaney Baker recalls meeting her husband Griffin in her early days at Mason. “He was in my religion class freshman year but he didn’t notice me until we lived across the hall from each other sophomore year!” she said. “On move-in day, in Dominion residence hall, we were moving in at the same time. Our mothers made fast friends and still claim that they get the credit for us meeting.”
Following their first date in SUB 2, playing pool and having dinner, they enjoyed many evenings on the Fairfax Campus. Griffin impressed Anne with an invitation to join him on the ArtsBus—a day-long trip to New York City to attend faculty-selected exhibitions—two months in the future. “If he could commit to that, I had a feeling we would commit forever!”
Griffin proposed to Anne at the top of Mount Bonnell, one of the highest points in her hometown, Austin, Texas. The photo here is from their engagement.
Julia Ruiz and Andre Allen
Julia Ruiz and Andre Allen met through mutual friends at the Southside dining hall, and reported that they didn’t hit it off immediately. “It was a love of jazz, funk, and soulful music that brought us together,” said Julia. A favorite memory was Andre’s 21st birthday at the beginning of senior year, she added.
Stephanie Gomez and Erik Gicker
Stephanie Gomez and Erik Gicker both recall that their first impression of one another was centered on their unique sense of style. "Whoa, who is this guy?” thought Stephanie. “He is so stylish. I can’t just approach him, he’s kind of intimidating.”
Erik, in turn, thought, “Who is this? Oh, it’s the girl from my class. The one who wears the hat all the time.”
During Stephanie’s final semester of undergrad classes and Erik’s first year as a transfer student, she approached him after a psychology class. "I genuinely liked his style and wanted to know more about him,” said Stephanie, “so I went for it. I tapped him on the shoulder heading out of Krug Hall and asked, ‘Hey, where did you get your backpack from?’ He proceeded to remove his headphones and asked, ‘…What?’…the rest is history.”
A favorite Mason memory of the couple is “enjoying Chick-Fil-A right outside of Robinson before it got torn down. This was the semester we met (spring 2018),” said Stephanie. They also enjoyed traveling to Washington, D.C. to see Peru play El Salvador in soccer: "He is half Peruvian and I am first-generation Salvadoran,” she said.
David Farris and Megan Benarick Farris
“The first time I saw Megan was at a meeting on the SciTech campus, I was immediately taken by her grace and composure,” said David Farris, Mason’s executive director of safety and emergency management. “She was also the most beautiful woman on campus. I felt, maybe dreamed is a better word, that our paths would somehow collide, but I also felt intimidated and nervous about how to approach her. When I recall our first encounter to Megan, she has absolutely no recollection of that meeting!”
The two shared a date with a group David had organized for a Washington Capitals hockey game, shortly followed by a chance meeting at the same sports bar a few days later. “The rest is history,” he said. “We were inseparable in the months that followed, got married in 2008, and now have two amazing daughters, Eva and Rose, and our little dog Lucy.”
A Mason alum connection played a role in the couple’s favorite memory. During their honeymoon, inclement weather induced them to stay a bit longer in the Caribbean. "On the way to the beach, we met another couple from Mason—evidenced by the Mason apparel they were wearing—and talked about our Mason experiences.” While he was swimming, David lost his new wedding ring in the murky water, and despite a long search, the ring could not be found. Megan suggested a custom from her Catholic upbringing: reciting a prayer to Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things.
Anthony came through. Not Saint Anthony, but their new Mason friend, who shared the name. David recalled, “About 10 minutes later, Anthony came walking up the beach with a ring that he had found washed ashore. It was my ring, marked with our wedding date and nickname. I would not have met Anthony or recovered my ring if it were not for our Mason connection.”
Holly Mason Badra and Danielle Badra
Holly Mason Badra, associate director of the Women and Gender Studies program, was certain: “After knowing Dani for only a few days, I already knew I wanted to spend time with her. After our first class together, I asked her if we could hang out. Or really, I said, ‘I want to be your friend!’ I was drawn to her presence, her social activism, and the fact that she frequently went to dance parties in D.C. She was also incredibly kind. We quickly connected over our shared backgrounds (me being part Kurdish and her being Syrian-Lebanese). I also liked that we connected on many things aside from being poets.”
Dani says that she wasn't sure if she wanted to make friends in grad school since she already had a large friend group in D.C. But, she admitted, "Holly was undeniable."
Holly and Dani met in 2014, while pursuing their MFA degrees in poetry. Their tutoring schedules aligned, as did their passion for supporting writers. "Our fondest and proudest moments in our time together at Mason was working together to organize two benefit readings to support local queer organizations,” they recalled. “We did this through our editorial positions with So to Speak (the MFA-run intersectional feminist art and literature journal). From the ground up, we both led the efforts to put together two readings that raised funds for historically underserved communities, and both were incredible successes!”
The couple’s plans for the future also reflected their care for each other. “My plans to propose to Dani took a backseat when her father became ill,” said Holly. “We spent months going back and forth between Virginia and Michigan. Watching her care for her father only solidified my certainty that I wanted to do life with this woman forever...Finally, on our 6-year anniversary, I decided I could wait no longer. She said YES! We had a very special wedding in October 2021.“
Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski
Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski are award-winning authors who met as graduate students in the MFA program in Creative Writing, and mutual admiration brought them together. "From the start,” recalled Art, “Tara and I enjoyed and admired one another's writing—and I appreciated so much her smart and generous feedback on my drafts. There were many other reasons for us becoming friends, but so often I think it was that first impression—’she's *really* good!’—that helped lay the foundation for everything that followed. Even today—married nearly 15 years and with an 11-year-old son—we're still reading one another's writing, supporting, cheering on, celebrating every way we can.”
It took some time for the relationship to bloom, however. “Tara and I were friends for three years during graduate school—2003-2006 for me—and we were both dating other people for almost all that time,” said Art. “Toward the end of our time at Mason, we both suffered some messy break-ups and started hanging out more... and more... and more... to the point that I asked our mutual friend Bernadette Murphy (another MFA student) if she thought there was something going on between us. ‘Oh, yes,’ she said. ‘Absolutely.’ Seems like everyone else knew we were dating before we did—it just took us a while to catch up!”
Their favorite Mason memory included another celebrated writer. In 2011, Art, now an associate professor in the Department of English and the Creative Writing program, had joined Mason’s faculty, while Tara shared her writing skills with the university’s communications team. “When Stephen King headlined Fall for the Book in 2011, I was his designated driver,” he said. "Tara (pregnant with our son Dash) joined me when we picked him up at Dulles and we so enjoyed chatting with him on our trips back and forth from airport to hotel to campus. He was super interested in the literature courses I was teaching, recommending books I should add to my syllabus and asking what my students were like, and he said he was such a fan of Mason's basketball team that he hoped he could get a Mason t-shirt. Needless to say, we got one quickly from the bookstore, and he put it on that night at his event, wearing it for his signing in the Center for the Arts. Such a thrill to meet a living legend.”
Art noted that their photo is from their son's recent 11th birthday party --roller skating in Manassas! Neither of them broke any bones.
Shawn Brann and Julie Wunderly Brann
Shawn Brann and Julie Wunderly Brann met in the fall of 1992. “We lived in the same Mason dorm during my junior year and Julie's sophomore year at Mason,” said Shawn.
Some of their favorite memories took place in EagleBank Arena (then the Patriot Center). “Cheering on the Patriots men's basketball team in the Patriot Center,” Shawn recalled, “even though those years weren't the best in terms of success. Midnight Madness was very fun during the college years, too, since you were more likely to still be awake at midnight during college.
“As two people who lived in Mason housing all four years, it was fun to simply hang out with your friends and hallmates, too,” he added.
And there must have been some magic in those hallways. “We celebrate 25 years of marriage this year on June 27,” said Shawn.