We Met at Texas Engineering

In Anali’s (civil engineering 2012) last semester she finally got the chance to take geotechnical engineering, a class she’d been trying to get in to for awhile, with professor Kenneth Stokoe. She was late to her first day of lab because she stopped for breakfast tacos — as one does. Only one seat remained when she walked in, and it happened to be just a few feet away from her future husband.

Her TA put her into a group with three other classmates, including a “super cute guy named Julian.”  Her words, not ours! Later that semester, when one of Anali’s friends back home in Del Rio, Texas, passed away, she asked her lab mates to take notes while she was gone. Immediately, Julian (civil engineering 2013) wrote back and said he would handle it. Soon after that, Anali and Julian became good friends. After a couple months of friendship, and after Anali graduated, Julian made the leap and asked her to be his girlfriend.

Four years later, Julian surprised Anali by proposing to her with a trio playing boleros and her family behind them. Anali had said she wanted her proposal to happen during a UT football game. However, Julian knew what she really wanted: to be surrounded by loved ones. They married in 2017 and had a beautiful baby (future engineer) Longhorn, in 2023.

Anali, also known as “The Nueva Latina” through her blog with more than 33,000 followers, is now a graduate engineer B at the City of Austin. And Julian is a civil engineer at Rodriguez Transportation Group.

Lynne and John (electrical engineering 1983, both) met at a bar following an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) event. After a few weeks of chance encounters on campus, they went on a date.

They’ve been together ever since.

Lynne and John dated most of their junior and senior year while working toward their electrical engineering degrees. They became partners in real life and partners in the lab, even though they focused on different things. They worked on several projects together, including creating an analog computer to model automotive suspension and programming a digital processor for simulating traffic light patterns.

They got engaged before graduation, married over the summer and started their careers in Dallas. There, John worked in Frito-Lay’s corporate engineering department, and Lynne prepared for the start of MBA classes at The University of Texas at Dallas. She joined Texas Instruments later that year in defense contracting. More than 40 years later, they’ve raised two kids, moved all over the U.S. and taken many trips together. However, Texas and UT have always been in their hearts. They recently moved to Corpus Christi to retire. Hook ’em!

A transition period on the engineering campus brought Laura (mechanical engineering 2017) and Santiago (electrical engineering 2017) together. At the time, fall 2015, the old electrical and computer engineering building was coming down to make way for what is now the Engineering Education and Research Center. Without a dedicated building as their “home base,” many electrical engineering students, Santiago included, searched for classrooms and study areas in nearby engineering buildings, which turned out to be a stroke of luck.

One day, Laura was studying in the Engineering Teaching Center T-room with a friend of Santiago’s. He came over to say hello to his friend, and that was the first time Laura met the man who would become her best friend, now husband of almost two years!

They soon ran into each other again at a tailgate and got to know each other more. They then made plans to have lunch at their favorite dining hall, Kinsolving. And, with midterms coming up, they planned to study together at the Perry-Castañeda Library. Nothing builds a stronger bond than last-minute, late-night study sessions.

After graduating in December 2017 with full-time jobs, they traveled the world together. But they weren’t always in the same place, moving around, sometimes to the same cities, sometimes different ones, as they established their engineering careers. In 2020, they settled in Houston. They got married in 2022 and moved to Austin last year. Laura is back at UT pursuing her master’s in mechanical engineering and an MBA. Santiago works as a senior software engineer at Factset Research Systems. To this day, Laura is so grateful that the Cockrell School of Engineering brought her and Santiago together.

Kemp (geotechnical engineering 2013) and Katie (civil engineering 2016) both lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood, likely crossing paths at least a few times before they properly met.

Katie always took the shuttle to campus, and Kemp always rode his bike. But one day, his bike broke down, so Kemp decided to take the shuttle. When Katie boarded the shuttle that day, she sat in the back row, wedged between two people, one of whom was Kemp. It wasn’t until the first stop on campus that he took his headphones off, turned to her, and asked, “Are you in engineering? You look kind of familiar. I think I’ve seen you around the civil building.”

They chatted for the final minute of the bus ride before going their separate ways. When Katie got to class, she told a friend, “I met the hottest guy on the bus just now, but he didn’t ask for my number or anything!” They saw each other on the bus a couple more times over the next few weeks and would always sit together and chat, but he still didn’t ask her out (editor’s note: we love a slow burn, but come on man, shoot your shot).

Katie eventually added him on Facebook — these were the pre-Instagram days — but he never reached out. One day, Katie was studying in the basement of Ernest Cockrell Jr. Hall (ECJ), and then, suddenly, Kemp sat down across from her. He finally asked her out that day. They had lunch together in front of ECJ the next day, followed by a picnic lunch at Mayfield Park that weekend.

Kemp graduated with his master’s degree about a year later and joined S.J. Louis Construction of Texas as a project engineer. He now works at Schnabel Engineering. Katie stayed at UT for another four years, following up her bachelor’s with a master’s degree. After that, she went to work as a water resource engineer at Halff, focusing on floodplain mapping in Austin. After Katie graduated, she and Kemp got engaged and moved to Cedar Park. They have been married for seven years now and are preparing to celebrate their child’s first birthday.

Kelsea (aerospace engineering 2016) and Amritpreet (aerospace engineering 2015) met during their sophomore year as officers of the Longhorn Rocketry Association (LRA).  Over time, after many hours of rocket building at the W.R. Woolrich Laboratories building and countless photo ops for the scrapbook Kelsea was creating for the LRA, she and Amritpreet became friends. Junior year, she started going to “boys’ night” to play video games — which she claims she was terrible at, but we’re sure the boys were cheating — with Amritpreet and a few other aerospace guys. After many weeks, Amritpreet finally asked Kelsea out on a date. Their first date went down at Magnolia Cafe off Lake Austin Boulevard — which has now moved to South Congress in case you plan on going on your first date there 😉.

Amritpreet graduated a year early in 2015 and went to work for Raytheon Technologies in Tucson, Ariz. while Kelsea wrapped up her senior year. After graduation, she moved to Salt Lake City to work at Lockheed Martin. After 18 months of long distance, and plenty of frequent flyer miles along the way, Kelsea and Amritpreet decided enough was enough. They moved to Denver together to take engineering roles at Lockheed Martin. They eventually got engaged and have been married for three years now.

Kristian and Emily (civil engineering 2020, both) met through a “Freshman Initiative Group,” or FIG, that the Women in Engineering Program organized. They bonded over the initial shock of college, especially the challenges of being on their own for the first time and of course the heavy workload. We’ve all been there.

They took many classes together over the next few years. They spent countless hours studying late into the night and drinking endless coffee to get them through the rigorous coursework.

Now, Emily works at BGE as a structural engineer and Kristian works at Coreslab Structures as a project manager. Despite the pressures of adulthood, they’ve managed to stay tight.  So tight that five years ago, Kristian was in Emily’s wedding. Last year, Kristian repaid the favor, taking part in Emily’s wedding! They couldn’t ask for better friends, and they know they would have never made it through college without each other.

They say the early bird gets the worm, but in this case, it gets the love story. Ryan and Elissa (biomedical engineering 2018, both) met during their second semester, when they both arrived early to their computing class. Ryan complimented Elissa’s Texas-shaped earrings (editor’s note: solid rizz). They became fast friends and study buddies.

Ryan asked Elissa out in May of that year, but she wasn’t ready for a boyfriend, so they agreed to stay friends. Elissa later changed her mind and made her move to ask him out in December. Their first date was at the Trail of Lights a week later and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. They have so many great college memories together, from studying abroad in Cambridge to Texas football games to many Greek Life date events.

Fast forward a few years, and they both graduated with a B.S. in biomedical engineering. They moved to San Diego together and even landed jobs at the same biotech company, Illumina. Fitting with their outdoorsy lifestyle, Ryan proposed to Elissa on a hike at Yosemite National Park. They rescued their dog, Franklin, in 2020. (editor’s note: yes, he is named after Franklin’s Barbeque). And in 2021, Elissa and Ryan got married at Lake Tahoe.

Despite sharing a couple classes over the years, Shannon and Chase (civil engineering 2018, both) didn’t get to know each other until their junior year. Chase joined Shannon’s study group for an environmental engineering class. At one of the meetings, Chase and Shannon got off topic and started to get to know each other a bit better.

Chase asked Shannon to go to dinner with him, and she said yes. The date ended up being about four hours long. It included dinner at Chuy’s, stargazing at Zilker Park, randomly finding some graffiti cans to spray paint at the Graffiti Park, putt putt at Peter Pan’s and finally driving out to Mount Bonnell. What a night!

During their wedding in 2022 they snuck away to show some love to UT. They found some real-life longhorns on the property next to the venue near Dripping Springs, and they took a few photos with them to commemorate their love and appreciation for the Cockrell School of Engineering and UT for bringing them together.

This group of women, all recent grads or getting ready to graduate, are still writing their story. Morgan (biomedical engineering 2024) was the uniting force of the group that together made history in running the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). And she met each of her besties in a unique and special way.

• Morgan met Brianna (petroleum engineering 2023) during their first year when they were both involved in the Women in Engineering Program (WEP). They were neighbors at Kinsolving Hall and attended NSBE meetings together, opening the door to get to know each other, become close friends and roommates.
• Morgan met Aaliyah (chemical engineering 2024) while she was still in high school visiting UT with dreams of becoming an engineer. Aaliyah also joined NSBE and immediately became like a sister to Morgan.
• Morgan and Shandria (mechanical engineering 2024) met during the first year of the pandemic through Zoom meetings, as both were NSBE officers at the time. They later bonded over evening walks, talking about everything from classes to their dreams and fears.
• Morgan met Taylor, who is set to graduate this year, in one of their biomedical engineering classes taught by Dan Puperi. They sat together for years, bonding over the challenging coursework and celebrating their academic wins. Taylor was a new NSBE member when they met, but her calm demeanor and quick mind helped her get into leadership.

Towards the end of Morgan’s third year, all of them were elected to be part of the “Top 5” in NSBE, the first ever all-woman Top 5 in their chapter. During their term as officers, NSBE meetings were filled with laughter, support and occasional tears. Even after their terms as officers ended, their friendship remained strong, and they have continued to share all the ups and downs in life with each other.