Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
February’s the month of love and matchmaking and Valentine’s Day. And Creighton has an incredible track record of producing real and lasting love connections.
Step aside, Cupid.
We’re celebrating Creighton's love connections again here!
(And maybe we should get Billy Bluejay a magical bow and quiver, just for show — imagine the TikTok views!)
Anyway, alumni shared their love stories with us for your enjoyment. So, cue up the Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye and Carole King tunes, and grab a box of candy hearts for this edition of Creighton Love Stories.
Come on down! (and meet your future spouse?)
Renee (Stephens) Gray, BSOT'95, and Matt Gray, PhD, BA'93
There was a residence hall social event where contestants played a mock game show, a Creighton-themed The Price is Right. The only catch? Participants didn’t pick their partners. Their roommates did.
So, it was Renee’s roommate who set up her blind date with Matt.
Renee and Matt knew each other already. Matt was a student building supervisor at the Kiewit Fitness Center when Renee started working at an equipment checkout position.
But it wasn’t until that wonderfully awkward Deglman date that they discovered their interest in each other.
“She purportedly thought I was cute but it was initially unclear whether — as a minimum wage employee — she was more drawn to my personality or my extravagant earnings, as I was making a dollar MORE than minimum wage (a whopping $5.25 per hour in those days),” Matt said. “After all, who wouldn’t be drawn to the prospect of an extra trip to Ted and Wally’s each month.”
They were together through graduation, and they hopped around the country while Matt finished graduate studies. From 2000 to 2002, Matt was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for PTSD in Boston and Renee worked at the largest pediatric rehab hospital in New England. Now, they’re in Wyoming with their two kids — backpacking and skiing every chance they get.
Bluejay love (re)connection
Elizabeth Samson, BA'13, MA'16 and Steele Valenzuela, BS'13
It had been nearly 10 years since Elizabeth and Steele dated for just a couple months while at Creighton. So, when Elizabeth’s best friend asked if it was OK to invite Steele to a fun gathering of close Bluejay alumni at an Omaha restaurant, she said “sure!”
There was no ill-will — Elizabeth and Steele just had not stayed in touch.
But that night at the Boiler Room, sitting next to each other, all the feelings came back.
Back in college, they did not meet until their final semester in 2013. It was either at a bar or at an apartment hangout where Steele was making Indian food for everyone. They started dating soon after. But Steele was lined up for graduate school in Massachusetts and Elizabeth planned to head to Denver for a year of service. So, the relationship ended.
Almost 10 years later, though, they picked up right where they left off. All thanks to Nicole Bray, BSBA'13, for deciding to organize such a big dinner event in 2022.
By the end of the meal, Elizabeth and Steele had exchanged phone numbers. A couple of weeks later, they went out for a drink – but ended up getting a meal and dessert, too.
“That’s what we call our ‘non-date date,’” Elizabeth said. “Both of us wanted it to be a date but neither of us were sure if it was. At the end of our non-date-date, Steele asked me on a ‘proper date.’ After which, I immediately called Nicole to fill her in!"
Two years after reconnecting, Elizabeth and Steele married at St. Pius X Catholic Church. They live together in Omaha.
Two Bluejays of a feather
Linda (Ash) Richards, BA'94, and Jason Richards, BSBA'94
Politics and the Human Condition at 9 a.m. It was Linda’s first class of her freshman year, and Jason’s second. They were so excited about being on a campus, meeting new people and starting a new chapter of their lives. So, they chatted for a bit.
Later that afternoon, Linda walked into a theology class. And Jason was there.
“We joked about having two classes together and from that point, we were having coffee dates and studying together,” Linda said. “We really connected right away in those two classes and never looked back.”
Their first date came early in their second semester. A movie, Kindergarten Cop. They were together as much as they could be after that.
Linda would do her studying in the computer lab where Jason worked. They had the same close group of friends, so they did everything together — classes, hanging out on the Mall, parties and hangouts.
During her senior year, Linda ran for a vacant seat on the Ralston school board and Jason was her campaign manager. They were engaged at that point, too. So, it was wedding planning, and election strategizing (Linda did win her race!), and job interviews.
“That senior year was crazy,” Linda said.
But worth it, certainly. Linda and Jason got married in July 1994. They ended up starting a business together. They have two kids. They’re so grateful to have found one another at Creighton.
“One meaningful thing for me is that I was baptized as an adult and confirmed at St. John’s, and Jason was there with me through that process,” Linda said. “I always felt that him being present with me then and us later sharing our marriage vows at St. John's as well, it’s just been an incredibly special story for us.
“I look back and think about how God maneuvered in that and through that whole process — it’s pretty amazing.”
May I have this Lu’au
Sydney Dang, BS'21, MS'23 and Joshua Laxamana, BSN'20
Sydney grew up in Arizona, but her parents are both from Hawaii. So, when they suggested she join Creighton’s Hui ‘O Hawai’i Club, she decided to try it.
That’s where she met Josh.
For a while, though, they were just acquaintances. They saw each other at meetings and events, but they didn’t know one another well.
Then Josh, who’s from O’ahu, walked into the Skutt Student Center with a friend. They spotted Sydney and asked her to join them for some boba. She was in!
Soon after that, Josh and Sydney were going on their first date at Trini’s, a Mexican restaurant in the Old Market. Their relationship blossomed from there. One of their fun memories was dancing together at Creighton’s 2018 Lū’au.
Josh and Sydney married just two months ago. Sydney is a Creighton medical student on the Phoenix campus.
And Sydney’s parents? They met at Creighton, too. Wendy (Ogimoto), BS'90, and Douglas Dang, BS'86, MD'90. Sydney definitely heard plenty of their college stories over the years. Now, she has her own Bluejay love connection story.
Love & Creighton
Carissa (Hoffman) Rowberry, BA'11, DPT'14, and Gabe Rowberry, BSBA'12, JD'15
After graduation, Gabe never planned to stay in Omaha or endure another Midwest winter. He figured he’d use his business degree in his home state, New Mexico.
But Carissa changed all of that.
They’d met their freshmen year. And they had several mutual friends. But they didn’t truly connect until two nights of extreme fun: a hangout at Sam and Louie’s and a dance-the-night-away date party at Carissa’s sorority (Gamma Phi Beta).
Carissa and Gabe started dating during the fall semester of their senior year. It was great. So great that Gabe had to find a way to stay in Omaha.
He applied to Creighton law school and got accepted. Carissa was already starting a physical therapy program at Creighton. Their relationship blossomed from there, forever tied to the campus where they met. They took engagement photos on campus, got married at St. John’s Church and eventually baptized all their children at St. John’s.
“Creighton’s tight-knit community allowed us to find each other and feel supported from all of our friends as our relationship grew,” Carissa said. “We regularly and coincidentally ended up running into each other on the Mall at just the right times in those early days.
“Knowing that we held similar values allowed for a foundation to be set from the start.”
We’ll always have Paris the Health Sciences library
Holly (Bourek) McKnight, BA’05, DDS’09, and Curtis McKnight
There were romantic moments and traditional dates for ice cream and dinner down in the Old Market. But most of the time Curtis and Holly spent together in the early days of their relationship came inside Creighton’s Health Sciences Library.
Study dates! Lots of them.
Holly was making her way through Creighton dental school and Curtis was pursuing his medical degree through the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
They’d met one summer in Fremont, Neb. They both worked at a medical clinic. That was 2005.
They grew closer after that. Thanks, certainly, to their library meet-ups. And all the wonderful trips to St. John’s Church for Mass. And the servings of Ted and Wally’s ice cream.
Curtis and Holly were married at St. John’s in 2009. They live in Phoenix now with their four kids. Curtis is an associate professor on Creighton’s Phoenix campus.
From dormmates to soulmates
Lindsey (Martin) O’Brien, BA’03, and Patrick O’Brien, BS’03, MD’07
Lindsey was looking for fun. It was the second day in her new dorm room inside Kiewit Hall. Fifth floor. She and her friend walked down to the fourth floor, and there was Patrick.
“My new roommate and I were on the hunt for a good party, and I met my soul mate instead,” Lindsey said.
(They actually did end up finding a party, too.)
That was the start of a friendship that soon evolved into a relationship between Lindsey and Patrick. They ran in the same circles. They lived one floor apart in Kiewit. Their first date came on the Mall – they walked with each other underneath the campus Christmas lights.
They were together the rest of the way through college and into Patrick’s time in medical school. He proposed by the St. John’s fountain in 2005, and they got married at St. John’s the next fall.
Lindsey and Patrick live together with their three children in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Surprise! It’s a date
Marissa Rubio-Ellis, BA'92, DDS'98, and John Ellis, BA'93, MS'98
Marissa thought a bunch of their mutual friends were joining them for dinner at John’s house. One of John’s roommates invited her over. But then she walked in.
“I quickly realized it was a setup,” Marissa said.
The date was long overdue.
Two years earlier, Marissa and John met during Welcome Week, right in front of the student center. She was leaving Kiewit Hall and heading for the bookstore. John was leaving the bookstore and heading back to his dorm.
“I had the biggest blue eyes he had ever seen and he was wearing a band T-shirt, Depeche Mode, from a concert I had attended over the summer,” Marissa said. “We chatted for a few moments and became fast friends. There was always a little spark there.”
It just took a while for Marissa and John to notice. Their friends, of course, recognized it first and eventually helped John scheme up a way to host that memorable dinner for two. They’ve been together ever since.
Marissa and John married in July 1996 at St. John’s Church. They have two children.
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Want to be featured in a future article? Share your Creighton love story with Jon Nyatawa at jonnyatawa@creighton.edu.
Check out more stories of couples falling in love at Creighton:
How I met my Bluejay: Summer Edition
How 14 Creighton couples fell in love
Six more Creighton Love Stories
14 Creighton Love Stories (2023)
Creighton couple married after meeting again — 40 years later
