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By Stephanie Towne '11
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Alex and Alison Burggren, '98
The romance between Alex and Alison Burggren, both graduates in 1998, began when they became partners for physiology lab. After a few weeks of the six hour long labs, Alison invited Alex to join her and several friends for drinks. They ended up talking the entire night and eventually left the group for a late night snack at Woodstock’s Pizza. The two hit it off, and several more dates followed. Six months later at their graduation in 1998, Alison and Alex introduced their families at a celebration dinner. They then set off to travel around Europe for the summer, Alex with his family and Alison with a close friend. They met up for a week in Sweden and ultimately realized how much they loved each other.
Back in the United States, they went on a road trip across the country to Maryland, where Alison was starting an internship at the National Institutes of Health and Alex began working for a law firm in Washington, D.C. They were soon engaged and moved back to California because Alison was starting graduate school at UCLA. They were married on August 19, 2000. Meanwhile, Alex started business school at USC and became a healthcare consultant.
Alison finished up her Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2003, three months before their first child was born. Alison joined the UCLA faculty in 2007, and their second child was born shortly thereafter. Their third child was born two years later in April, 2009. The sixth member of their family is their beloved dog, Davis.
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Andrew Aramaki ’02 and Penny Honda ’02
Drew and Penny first met in 1998 in their Japanese class.
They also got to know each other through their involvement in the
Japanese American Student Society. The couple started dating after
studying abroad in Kyoto, Japan, during the summer of 2001. They dated
for the rest of their time at Davis, but were forced to go their
separate ways after graduation in 2002.
Shortly after, Drew moved to Japan to teach English for
three years through the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program.
Meanwhile, Penny worked at the state capitol in Sacramento before going
to Santa Clara University Law School. When Drew returned to the United
States in 2006, their paths eventually crossed and the couple started
dating again. They got engaged on a trip to Colorado. Drew proposed to
Penny at the gorgeous Maroon Bells Mountains in Aspen.
Penny and Drew currently live together in San Mateo,
California. Penny serves as corporate counsel in Oracle’s legal
department and Drew is pursuing his doctorate in physical therapy at
UCSF. They hope to one day own their own Dachshund puppy and enter him
in the annual wiener dog races on Picnic Day.
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David Benjamin '99 and Amanda Boardman '08
David and Amanda met in the annual UC Davis Alumni Chorus. After a long day of rehearsals, many of the members of the choir decided to walk to downtown Davis for pizza. Some of the students in the choir called other friends and invited them to join. One of the students they called was Amanda, who had been at home getting over a bad case of pneumonia. David and Amanda ended up sitting next to each other and spent the rest of the night talking and getting to know one another.
After the concert, David returned to his home in Southern California. Despite the distance between them, David and Amanda managed to stay in touch. David would occasionally make the long drive up to Davis to spend time with her. After graduating in 2008, Amanda moved down to Southern California to start a new job and move in with David.
A few years later, their whirlwind romance took them to Italy, where Amanda was participating in a summer opera training program. David flew out to visit her at the end of the program and they spent ten days sightseeing and traveling. David proposed to Amanda at sunset on a hill overlooking the city of Florence. They plan to marry in the summer of 2011.
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Clay and Brooke Brandow, '75 and '77
Clay and Brooke Brandow’s love story began in the Domes, the innovative sustainable UC Davis housing commune that Clay helped build. Clay would live in the Domes during the school year, but spent the rest of the time working in the mountains for the U.S. Forest Service. After his second year working for the Forest Service, a mutual friend invited both Brooke and Clay to dinner to celebrate his return to Davis. Brooke, who had just moved into the Domes that year, and Clay hit it off immediately.
Brooke and Clay started spending time together. The couple would enjoy casual and thrifty dates like walks, bike rides, gardening, or occasional trips downtown for ice cream and a movie. They also formed a dinner club with two of their friends from the Domes. They would eat together four nights a week and rotate the cooking each night.
After graduating in 1975, Clay went to work with the Forest Service again as a backcountry ranger in the Emigrant Wilderness north of Yosemite. Meanwhile, Brooke stayed in Davis and worked for the Viticulture and Enology Department. Despite the distance, they stayed in touch by writing long letters to each other. Brooke would often bake cookies and mail them to Clay up in the mountains. One day, she even backpacked over fifteen miles into the wilderness to visit him.
After Brooke graduated from Davis in 1977, she moved up to Tuolumne County to join Clay. She worked supervising a Youth Conservation Corps crew. They found a house with several co-workers and all moved in together. Shortly after, Brooke began working for the Tuolomne County Weights and Measures, while Clay worked with Tuolumne County Planning. They eventually decided to move into their own home.
That spring, the couple talked and finally realized that they wanted to get married. They told both of their mothers the good news on Mother’s Day. They were married on July 15, 1978, and say they are still as much in love now as they were then. They have two children, and currently live in Davis. They are both life members of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association.
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Nicholas Rapach '02 and Jennifer Co '03
Nicholas Rapach ’02 and his wife Jennifer Co ’03 met in the summer of 2001 at the UC Davis Bookstore, where they were both employees. Nicholas, who worked at the returns counter, immediately developed a crush on Jennifer, but was too nervous to introduce himself. One day, a co-worker of his wrote "someone at the returns counter thinks you’re cute" on a note and stuck it to Jennifer’s computer in the textbooks department. Jennifer was puzzled about the mysterious note and mentioned it to her friend Nicole. Nicole, Nick’s co-worker at the returns counter, told Jennifer the identity of her secret admirer.
Once Jennifer knew who wrote the note, she made it her goal to learn more about him. She saw him for the first time a few days later and was immediately smitten. She courageously walked over and started talking to him, quickly discovering that they had a lot common. He asked her to join him on a walk in the arboretum, where they spent time talking and getting to know each other. Shortly after, they decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend.
Eight years later at the April 2009 Picnic Day, Nick and Jennifer walked down to where they had first met, the basement of the UC Davis Bookstore. Surrounded by the stacks of books, Nick handed Jennifer a ring case with a note saying "someone at the returns counter wants to marry you." He got down on one knee and proposed, and Jennifer immediately said yes. They were married on August 21, 2010.
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Reeves Bandermann ’95 and Joy C. Rosenquist ’98
UC Davis brought Reeves Bandermann and Joy Rosenquist together long after they graduated. Reeves, who graduated in 1995 with a degree in psychology, and Joy, who graduated in 1998 with a degree in political science, never actually crossed paths while they were living in Davis.
After graduation, Reeves worked for Hewlett Packard for several years. He then continued on to the Aerojet Corporation, where he currently manages the IT Department. Joy enrolled in University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, eventually passing the bar in 2001. She currently manages the civil litigation team at Goyette & Associates, Inc.
The couple finally met when both moved to Folsom and happened to enroll their daughters in the same school. After becoming acquainted through school functions and activities, they realized their mutual Aggie Pride and love for UC Davis. They discovered that they had frequented many of the same favorite hangouts as undergraduates like the Grad and Woodstock's. Amazingly, their sorority and fraternity even shared the same lawn.
After dating for four years, the couple eventually married and brought their families together. With four children and a Labrador, they lovingly call themselves the “Banderbunch.” Joy and Reeves take their family to Davis often, hoping to plant the seeds that they too could become Aggies.
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Robert and Stacey Moulton, ’93
Rob and Stacey Moulton, both graduates in 1993, met when they worked for Unitrans. Rob was a supervisor and drove one of the famous “double-decker” buses, while Stacey was a conductor. As the driver, Rob was at the front of the bus, while Stacey was at the back collecting money and taking stops from passengers. Because their jobs required that they work on opposite ends of the bus, initially their only communication was the bell that Stacey would ring to request stops.
As fate would have it, a bus accident brought them together. Another Unitrans driver had clipped a tree, leaving the double-decker bus out of commission for repairs. Stacey and Rob ended up choosing the same time for weekly shifts, but because of the accident there were no double-decker buses available for them to drive during that time. They were instead assigned to a single-deck bus, which allowed them to be stationed together at the driver’s seat. They quickly became friends from working together so closely each week and eventually began dating. A year later, they were engaged.
Shortly after graduating, Rob and Stacey were married on September 24, 1994. They now have three boys and live in Colorado Springs. They leave a poster of their Unitrans bus hanging in their house as a reminder of how their relationship began.
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Ryan Jack ’02 and Marisa Manzanares ’02
Ryan Jack ’02 and his wife Marisa Manzanares ’02 met in a physical education class during their senior year at UC Davis. After the initial meeting, the two busy seniors kept running into each other at the UC Davis Bookstore and the Cantina, where Ryan worked. They dated for a while and eventually moved in together a few blocks from campus.
Ryan graduated in the spring of 2002. Four days after graduation, Ryan left for Infantry Basic Training because of his involvement in the Army’s Delayed Entry Program. Immediately following Ryan’s completion of Advanced Individual Training in October 2002, the couple eloped. However, they were only able to remain together for a week. He was going through airborne school while she was finishing up her final quarter at UC Davis. Ryan was deployed in February to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom until August of 2003. While Ryan was in Iraq, Marisa returned to California to pursue a graduate degree at San Francisco State University.
Ryan and Marisa were reunited in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where Ryan was reassigned to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command and Marisa worked for Vanderbilt University. However, their time together was all too short. Ryan was redeployed in 2006 while Marisa was eight months pregnant with their first child, Ethan. Fortunately, Ryan was able to call via satellite during the delivery.
Ryan was honorably discharged in 2007. He moved to join Marisa in San Ramon, California, where they have been ever since. Shortly after, Marisa gave birth to their daughter Ava. Ryan and Marisa have brought their UC Davis love story full circle by making it a family tradition to return to the campus every year for Picnic Day.
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Vincent Shin ’08 and Maggie Fong ’07
The romance between Maggie Fong ’07 and Vincent Shin ’08 began on a Unitrans bus on the way to campus. Vincent realized that he and Maggie were in the same class when he saw that she was reading one of the course’s required books. Their paths crossed again when their discussion sections for an Asian American Studies class were combined. The two became friends after Vincent decided to host a study group before the final exam.
Vincent and Maggie found that they made good study partners so they decided to make studying together a routine. Their study sessions led them to spend more time together outside of the library as well, from cooking dinner together with friends to going grocery shopping. They eventually realized that they were also fans of anime and decided to go to Fanime, San Jose’s annual anime convention. Shortly after the trip, Maggie and Vincent decided to become an official couple.
After Maggie graduated in 2007 with a double major in psychology and Asian American studies, she moved home to Sacramento while Vincent finished up his senior year. Vincent graduated in 2008 with a degree in international relations and a minor in Chinese. Following his graduation, the couple decided to move to Southern California so Maggie could begin graduate school and Vincent could look for work.
Maggie recently finished her master’s in psychology with emphases in marriage and family therapy and art therapy. Vincent works for his parent’s freight forwarding company.
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