In honor of Valentine’s Day, Spartan sweethearts – from the 1980s to current campus couples – shared their UNCG love stories.
Some couples hit it off immediately – more than a few noted that they met their loved one on their very first day of class or at freshman orientation. Some only recently started dating; some got engaged on campus; some are newlyweds; and others will soon be celebrating 10 or even 20 years of marriage and are now the proud parents of future Spartans.
From first kisses on College Avenue, to dates at Yum Yum’s, to wedding ceremonies on the Alumni Walk, these Spartan Sweethearts share at least one thing in common – they’re grateful that UNCG brought them together.
Wesley Rogers ’08 and Brittney (Riddick) Rogers ’08
“Wesley and I met my freshman year at UNCG in 2006. We were friends in school, and reconnected years after graduating. In 2016, he proposed at Homecoming in Cone Ballroom, 10 years from when he first saw me there when I was there for SOAR. We got married in 2018 and welcomed our son, Dominic, in 2020.”
Andrea Al-Adwani ’96
“We met on the steps of the tennis court and had walks over the bridge near the Health Center and koi pond behind Alumni House. We had extended goodbyes in the dorm lobby at curfew time. He often interrupted my study sessions with flirting next to the fountain or picnics in the gardens in front of the Foust Building. We took frosty cold walks past the Science Building to get hot chocolate at Tate Street Coffee. We married on the Alumni Walk in front of the Foust building with alumni friends as attendants and guests. A professor from the School of Music played our wedding processional. Our wedding party took photos in the Alumni Garden where we first fell in love, and we held our reception on the wooden parquet floor of Elliot with the best tasting wedding cake I’ve ever had.”
Brittini and Eric Macedo ’12
“In November 2008, I was a freshman living on the 5th floor of Reynolds. I was packing and going home most weekends because it had been an adjustment being away from home until one weekend in November I decided to stay on campus for the weekend. I ended up meeting a cutie who lived on the same floor in our dorm that weekend. This cutie – who would one day become my husband, Eric – offered me a Cheerwine and the rest, as they say, is history. We became inseparable almost instantly. I cheered him on at basketball games (where he served as the mascot), we had snowball fights in the big snow of that winter, played probably too much Mario Kart, and baked Toll House cookies in the dorm basement on Wednesdays. There is hardly a UNCG memory that doesn’t have Eric in it. We became engaged our junior year and got married the following year, just 2 months after graduation. I even had my bridal portraits made in the parking deck overlooking the campus where we fell in love. We’ve been inseparable ever since that beautiful November weekend. Fourteen years of togetherness and 10 years of marriage later, and I still feel like an 18 year old girl getting to hang out with that cute boy who lived across the hall. We’ve built a beautiful life together with two gorgeous girls and each working in our fields of study. I will forever be grateful for UNCG, Reynolds Dorm, and that fateful weekend we fell in love.”
Brittany Chapman, senior geography student, and Michael Chapman ’21
“Michael and I met our first semester at UNCG in Fall 2018. On November 1, 2018, I was sitting on a park bench in Foust Park studying for a geography exam. Michael approached and asked me where the Foust Building was (he knew perfectly well, but he was trying to find an excuse to talk to me.) He asked what I was studying, and I gave him a long geography lecture about sedimentary rocks. I fell for him instantly, although that isn’t really like me. Two months later, in January, we officially started dating. We got married in December 2020, and our twin daughters were born in March 2021!”
Jessica Ebron ’10 and Lynwood Ebron II ’09
“Our story doesn’t start with “love at first sight” as neither me or my husband, Lynwood Ebron II, quite remember the first time we met. However, we are sure our paths crossed sometime in 2007 as our circles overlapped in many ways. We were both members of the Neo Black Society (NBS) in different entities. I was in the Gospel Choir and he was a member of the Sports and Recreation group. We became good friends over time, and he eventually took me on our first date to Brixx Pizza at the start of the Fall semester in 2008. From that night on, we had regular coffee dates at the coffee shop in the EUC. We frequented Sonic on the weekends when he would let me do my laundry at his newly built off-campus apartment, The Edge. On Christmas Day in 2008, we found out we were expecting! This came as a shock as he was a senior and I was a junior. Our daughter was born in August 2009. She quickly became the “UNCG baby” as our friends would take care of her, strolling her around campus while we were in our classes. It takes a village, and our Spartan village really stepped up and became an amazing support system during this time. Everyone wanted us to succeed, and we did! Lynwood graduated in the Fall of 2009 from the Bryan School of Business and Economics with his B.S. in Business Administration and a minor is Communication Studies. I followed behind him graduating in the Fall of 2010 from the School of Health and Human Performance with my B.S. in Kinesiology and a minor in Community Youth Sports Development. In 2012, we vowed to spend the rest of our lives together, and in 2014, we celebrated the birth of our twin boys. Flash forward to 2022, and we have relocated our family of five to Raleigh. Neither of us knew what to expect when we first stepped on UNCG’s campus, but looking back, we are so glad that this is the way it all worked out.”
The Carmans
“My husband and I met during the end of our sophomore year at UNCG and got married on Oct. 15, 2020! I was a professions in deafness major, and my husband was a nursing major. In this photo, we are holding the UNCG pennant and our bridal party (all UNCG alumni/current students) is using ASL to show “UNCG” and “I Love You!” We of course had to incorporate the G into our special day! Most of our bridal party are alumni and blue and gold were our wedding colors! Our first date was at the boba house on Tate street (we try to get back there annually now that we live in NY). We would take long strolls on campus for cheap date nights and would stand outside of our dorms (Spring Garden and Jefferson) for hours chatting at the end of our first few dates! The G will always hold a special place in our hearts!”
Brett Elliott, senior drama and sociology student, and Elijah Tyler, senior ASL student
“We had HIS 210 together in the fall semester of 2019 and very quickly became friends. We spent two years hopelessly pining for each other, not knowing it was mutual. (Even though I took Eli to see the Sonic movie on Valentine’s Day in 2020 – I don’t know how much more blunt I can be!) We started dating this past November.”
Martha Marty Hatcher ’84
“I met my husband Dan when he began work in 1986 at the Learing Resources Center in the McNutt Building. He had just been hired to deliver equipment on campus, and I was a graduate assistant working at the circulation desk when we met. We had an immediate attraction, but he already had a girlfriend. It took years before we were able to get together. We married in 2000 and had almost 17 wonderful years together before cancer caused his death. I will always be grateful to Nanny Foster who hired us both, and thus started our love story.”
Ike Hawkins ’19, M. Ed. student affairs administration student, and Ashley Ellin ’19, M.A speech-language pathology student
“We met in the Cone Ballroom at SOAR back in 2015 when we were grouped together for an activity. Our first date was on Tate Street, our first kiss was on College Avenue, and the rest is history. Seven years later, we’re taking on graduate school together at UNCG as a married couple. We’ll graduate in 2023 as double alums and forever Spartan Sweethearts. From SOAR to soaring through grad school together!”
Kaitlyn and Zach Sherman ’16
“We have been together for almost 8 years, and it’s all thanks to UNCG! We met through a mutual friend in Jackson Library. We were supposed to be studying for exams, but all we remember doing was talking and getting to know each other more. After meeting, we started running into each other all over campus and spent many lunches and dinners in the Caf together. In Fall 2014, I studied abroad, and we Skyped for hours each night. We decided to see where this would go and make it official. We had our first in-person date on New Years Eve, and then Zach left to study abroad in Spring 2015. We dated long distance while we both studied abroad in different semesters, but we continued to develop our relationship. Our senior year, we ended up having almost all of our classes together, and we were always together on campus. UNCG is at the heart of our love, and we wouldn’t have found each other if it wasn’t for that April 2014 night in Jackson Library. We recently got married in January of 2022, and are still so proud to be Spartans and Spartan Sweethearts!
Megan Turner, senior finance student, and Adam Juarez, senior computer science student
“We met in our Freshman Seminar, Risk & Reward: Entrepreneur American Capitalism. Our professor, Dr. Gates, gave us the opportunity to travel to D.C. for our class study. Once we boarded our chariot to the capital, we simply could not keep our gaze off one another. By the end of the trip, we shared plenty of couch talk and really bonded as if we were old friends reuniting over a cup of coffee. After our escapade, our friendship quickly grew into something more. After a year of officially being together, we returned to D.C. where it all began (the photo above is a byproduct of that anniversary trip). Now, we have been dating for three years and are looking to move in together after I graduate. Thanks, Professor Gates!”
Rass and Kierra Kearney ’13
“It was January 2010 in Spring Garden Apartments. A handsome man named Rass was on his way to lend a helping hand to his friend. You see, he was really good at helping others fix computers and other electronics. He entered the building and boarded the elevator when he locks eyes with a beautiful, but unfamiliar face that captivates his attention. This is highly unlikely for him, as he was well-known on campus. ‘Hello,’ he said as he flashed a friendly smile. ‘Hi,’ she replied with a bashful grin. Reaching the third floor, he hopped off and headed down the hallway. Little did he know, the lady was headed the same direction. He reached Room 344 and behind him, he heard the bashful voice from a minute ago. ‘This is actually my apartment,’ she said. ‘Really?’ he asked in complete shock. ‘Yeah, really!’ she replied as she reached for her keys. ‘Who are you here for?’ she asked. ‘I’m here to see Kendra,’ he replied. She opened the door and allowed him to enter. Kendra comes out of her room, greets her friend, and thanks him for helping fix her computer. ‘I see you have met my sister, Kierra,’ she says. ‘She’s a freshman this year at UNCG.’ ‘Your sister?’ Rass said as he realized that he would be hearing this bashful voice a little more often, and that face would no longer be unfamiliar. Four whole years passed by, and the two grew a beautiful friendship that lasted through graduation. Rass finally decided to ask Kierra out on a date in the summer of 2013, and they have been inseparable ever since. They got married in March of 2016 and now have a son together named Rass Jr. We’re proud to share that our beautiful love story began on the elevator in Spring Garden Apartments at UNCG.”
Visit go.uncg.edu/spartansweethearts for more UNCG love stories.
Graphic by Jiyoung Park, University Communications
