Melonie K. Smith Bland ‘05 and Daniel Bland ‘07 were both orientation leaders for the incoming freshman class and became interested in each other. Although they knew each other from the previous year and had mutual friends, it wasn’t until August 2004 that they started to develop a friendship and later on a relationship.
Melonie’s favorite memory of their time at Albertus together is when she returned from a student activities conference and found hand-written love letters under her dorm door from Daniel.
Dan recalls that he learned early on that Melonie has a love for baked goods. While trying to impress her, he went into Nilan, baked and frosted her a cake from scratch to surprise her. When Dan was almost finished he called Melonie down to the kitchen and they finished the cake together.
Today, Daniel is a senior pastor of a church in New Haven and owns a consulting business. Melonie is a psychologist working with adults, teens and families. They co-own The Well-Connecticut Wellness & Urban Trauma Center providing culturally sensitive services to those in the Greater New Haven area.
“Albertus was our beginning and will always hold a special place in our hearts. For our 10th wedding anniversary we planned to go to Hawaii but our trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. So instead, we went to Albertus with a professional photographer to take pictures at the place it all began.”
Brett Colavolpe ‘07 and Carli Matrisian ‘15 met at Fall Fest in 2011 and continued seeing each other around at gatherings. Their favorite memory is working together at their alma mater. Carli works in the Admissions Office and volunteers as an Assistant Softball Coach, and Brett previously worked as Men’s Soccer Coach.
Brett and Carli recently got engaged in August 2020 and live in Milford. They will be getting married this August 2021!
Danielle Figueroa ’13 and Raymond Askew Jr ’12 met through mutual friends on the Men’s Basketball and Women’s Soccer Team. They enjoyed supporting each other during their games and attending Albertus events. Danielle and Raymond have been together since June 2010, recently engaged Nov 2020, and currently live in Hamden. “Our life today is bust and fun with an active boy year old boy who now runs the show!”
After being married for 12 years, the story of how Deb Ward Quirk ’94 and John Quirk ’94 met continues to be an ongoing debate between the two. Deb remembers meeting John while helping out at Orientation her sophomore year. John says they met when he toured the campus before transferring to Albertus.
They currently live in Clermont, Florida and have two children. John is a math teacher at the local high school and Deb works for Holiday Inn Vacations.
Some of their favorite memories include going to Boppers and hanging out with classmates who are still some of their best friends today. “One of our favorite trips is coming back to Albertus to see how much it’s grown and to see our friends.”
Katie Rowe Glynn ‘09 and Roger Glynn ‘08 met on the first night of Katie’s freshman year. They remained friends throughout their time at Albertus, and then a few years after graduating, started dating. One of their favorite memories is exploring downtown New Haven, which is still one of their favorite pastimes.
“We married in 2019, and have since bought a house and adopted two adorable pups We joke that we’re ‘coworkers’ now since we’ve been working remotely together since March”
Emili Dunbar-Conroy ‘16 and Benjamin Dunbar-Conroy ‘15 met through a mutual friend in 2013 and began bonding over their love of art.
One of their favorite memories is hanging out after rehearsals and shows. Ben acted in the English Club play and Emili helped out backstage. “We sat together in Sansbury, made food, and talked for hours.”
Through Albertus, Emili learned about and eventually joined Dominican Volunteers USA. She was placed in Chicago from August 2016 to July 2017. Ben proposed to her before she left. Today, they are married and have a house in Maine.