Emily Kammerud-Balistreri '13 and Connor Balistreri '14

Connor and I met at Carroll when he was a new Writing Center recruit and myself, a seasoned Writing Assistant of one year. At our meet and greet meeting for the new Writing Assistants, I noticed a very tall, dark and handsome gentleman who seemed to keep smiling at me from across the table, despite the fact I had accidentally drooled on my shirt when introducing myself. Oops! 

Although he was very shy, we warmed up to each other at work and found we both were art majors, enjoyed science fiction movies and had a strange mutual love for the book "Dune." We were quite excited when finding we'd be taking a sculpture class together and ultimately bonded over a very large cardboard sculpture we created that won Best in Show at the spring art show, which our friends playfully nicknamed our "art lovechild." 

Finally, I couldn't resist any longer and awkwardly asked Connor if he'd like to "be, like, dating," to which he said "Yes!!" and one year later in the same dorm room in Pio where I had asked Connor out, he proposed. After a long engagement, we finally tied the knot September 16, 2017 and were overjoyed when our fellow Writing Assistant (and close friend) Dane Mariani officiated and Art Professors Phil Krejcarek, Peggy Thurston-Farrell and Michael Imes attended. Even Susan Nusser, who headed the Writing Center while we worked there, came.