Love in the lab: WSU Applebaum alumni Valentines
To celebrate Valentine's Day, Wayne State University Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences alumni told us their Warrior love stories in their own words.
(In case you missed it: Read about Nemo and Stacey Niemiec's happily ever after that started right here at Wayne State.)
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| Aladdin Alaiwat '03 & Lama Hsaiky '03 Aladdin Alaiwat, PharmD and Lama Hsaiky, PharmD, met in 1997 in chemistry classes that were prerequisites for pharmacy school, which they attended together at WSU. They were wed during their 4th year of rotations in December 2002. They graduated pharmacy school in May 2003 and started a family including two boys, Kareem and Zane, in 2008 and 2009. They are still happily married and practicing pharmacy and preceptor Warriors for WSU. | Rudy Alcala '12, '17 & Devin Simpson '12, '17 Rudy and I met in 2009 when we started the nursing program at Wayne State. Rudy and I didn't start talking to each other though until 2010 when he took my phone number off a shared clinical schedule and contacted me about something clinical related. From then on we quickly became great friends and study partners with many common interests that progressed from there. After graduating in 2012 with our Bachelor of Science in Nursing, both Rudy and I ended up working at the University of Michigan. He went to work in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit and I went to work in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. We then got married in Jamaica in 2014 with several of our friends from the nursing program in attendance. In 2015, we went back to school together and graduated again from Wayne State in 2017 with our Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia. We both currently work at the University of Michigan as full-time CRNAs and just welcomed our first child, Claire, into the world in August 2020! |
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| Kirk Bennett '19 & Colin Colter '19 Kirk Bennett and I both started undergrad at Wayne State in 2012 knowing we planned to pursue a career in health sciences. Funny enough we almost were slotted as roommates through the app Roomsync the school was using at the time. After the great education we received, we were both eager to return for grad school at Wayne State's Physician Assistant program. Over the course of 2017, spending countless hours with our study group in the WSU Applebaum building, we developed feelings for each other and began dating at the end of didactic year. We both graduated in spring of 2019, and got engaged spring of 2020! | Scott Booth '11 & Lindsay Stahl '11 Scott and I met in the radiologic technology program. We made it into the same class. We became good friends during the program, as you are with your classmates almost 24/7 for the two years of the program. We both got hired at Henry Ford Hospital upon graduation. We kept in touch and would see each other occasionally at work. About a year after graduation we officially started dating. ❤️ This photo of us was taken in California, where we live now. |
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| Kevin Cassidy '18 & Nikki Taylor '18 Kevin (Pathologists' Assistant) and I (Radiologic Technology) met through mutual friends on my 20th birthday and have been inseparable ever since. Our favorite spot to hang out while we were at WSU was the Shinola dog park that we would take our Great Dane to with a coffee in hand, from either Avalon or Great Lakes coffee. | Ankit Desai '11 & Lea Monday '11 We met hanging out with friends going to lunch between classes in pharmacy school, then Ankit started working at Harper Hospital where I was also doing a PGY1 pharmacy residency after graduating. We started dating and soon after I started medical school in 2012. In 2016 we got married and welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Vani, in 2018. We are currently expecting a boy due in July 2021. Ankit is a pharmacist a Harper Hospital and I am an infectious diseases physician at Henry Ford Hospital. We love to cook, hike, and travel with our baby, and are so glad we both went to EACPHS! |
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| Hadi El Husseini '17 & Safana Atwan '18 During my first year of pharmacy school, I was elected to be the Director of Community Outreach for the Arab American Pharmacist Association. The first event I organized was Relay for Life during the summer after my P1 year, at which Hadi and I met while he was volunteering. A friendship flourished that day, and later grew to be something more through our years of schooling! | Joseph Granata '12 & Lianne Kokoska '12 Lianne and I met in 2008 during our first year of pharmacy school. I started a conversation with her in the LRC, and the rest is history. |
 | David Fontana '89 & David and I actually met in high school but started dating the summer after both of us had done two years as undergrads; me at Wayne State and David at Western Michigan University. He was to start medical school somewhere, but after we started our romance he switched to pharmacy school and a PhD with Randy Commissaris. |
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| Andrew Hanna '19 & Gabriella Karmo '19 We are convinced that we wouldn't have met if it weren't for God to have placed us both at EACPHS at the perfect time. We met early on during P1 year and became really great friends from the start! We formed a study group with a small group of more friends and stayed close all throughout pharmacy school. We were each other's support system, study buddy and most of all, source of laughter throughout all of the ups and downs of the program. We didn't start dating until P3 year and got engaged about a year after graduation. We are looking forward to our wedding coming up in September! | Lamar Hanna '10 & Jessica Peters '08 I was P4 and he was P2 when we met in 2007 as a blind date to a Kappa Psi brother's wedding. My friend really wanted me to go to the wedding because he was taking my good friend as his date, and he wanted me there for support, so he said to just go as Lamar's date so I could get into the wedding. Later that night, he was locked out of his room at the Kappa Psi house and as I was waiting for my ride home in the living room we were forced to talk a lot and we realized we liked each other. 🥰 We then dated for a bit but amicably went our separate ways for a year (I lived in Canada, him in Michigan - We decided to just be friends as I started my life as a full-time pharmacist working grueling hours to pay off loans and he was still working through school with some of his toughest courses like Infectious Diseases) ...but we reconnected in 2009 via a Facebook message and never looked back! 💕💕💕 Fast forward - We now have 3 kids, one on the way (due in June), we own five pharmacies that we spearheaded together along with other business ventures. Our first pharmacy has won three chamber awards including Business of the Year! We've done a lot together through the grace of God, and he is the best partner I could have ever asked for! |
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| Atheer Kaddis '92, '94 & Kathleen Loughlin '92, '94 We were in the same class beginning in 1990 but did not actually speak with each other until our last year of pharmacy school in 1992. We were on rotation at one of the local hospitals together and started spending time together (it was "love at first sight"). Kathleen invited two of her girlfriends to our first date (on Valentine's Day 1992), and I still believe it was a test that I am glad I passed. We have been very happily married for over 23 years and we have two amazing kids (our daughter, Marisa who is 20 years old and our son, Ryan who just turned 18 years old). | Frank Kava '74 & Kristie Sherman '74 Frank and I both graduated from the Wayne State University physical therapy program in 1974. We were married in 1977. We met at the beginning of our physical therapy program as we were lab partners in the human anatomy cadaver lab our first semester. It was a very interesting way to meet and work together. Our "team" endured as we went on to date through the remainder of our physical therapy program, later marry, raise a family of three children, and work together as owners/partners in our private practice for over 40 years. |
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| Dale Knuth '11 & Jill Nawrocki '12 We met at the PT gala, and ever since we have been taking on life's challenges together. | Mark Lansford '03 & Lainey Tait '04 Mark (Mortuary Science) had just graduated from the University of Michigan and I (Pathologists' Assistant) had just left working as a lab tech at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ. Our classes were held in the same building but students from different programs were kept separate from each other almost immediately. The only interaction we had was the occasional congregating in the lobby of our shared building. One morning, I came to campus early to attend a kickboxing class at the WSU gym, a decision I am reminded of daily by a twenty-year-old back injury acquired from the misguided adventure. After finishing the class, I arrived at school early and waited in the lobby for my seven classmates to arrive. While waiting, my future husband saw me and gathered the nerve to ask why I was there so early. When I responded, "Kickboxing," he stumbled and awkwardly mumbled, "You scare me!" Although the introduction was a bit shaky, Mark was intent on finding a way to a second shot. After many of his mortuary science classmates colluded to plan a Halloween road rally with the only real goal of getting the two of us in the same car, he redeemed himself. Since Mark was also taking classes in forensic investigation, we eventually had several classes together and became inseparable for most of our time at WSU. The rest is history. |
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| Steven MacDonald '11 & Kayla Clermont '10 We actually first met at Henry Ford Hospital on the day he interviewed for the Radiologic Technology program. I gave him his tour of the hospital, though we didn't start dating until I was about to graduate the following year. After graduating, we worked at the Detroit campus in different departments for a few years while living and enjoying downtown Detroit! Currently, we both are still employed with Henry Ford at their Bloomfield hospital, Steve specializing in MRI and myself in CT. We have a 2-year-old son and another child due in April. We are still close with many of our fellow graduates. Our family picture is from attending the wedding of two of our close friends and fellow radiologic classmates in Costa Rica! | Ardit Mitaj '15 & Olympia Sanchez '20 Our love story, not going to lie, is pretty cool. 😏 Long story short, in 2015 after Ardit had just graduated with his MOT, he traveled up to Traverse City (where I am from) with his buddies to watch the Red Wings training camp that they usually host up there in the summers. I was 19 and managing a food truck at The Little Fleet (one of the best spots downtown). One night he came past my food truck and ever since that day we met, we have not gone a day without talking. He was also the person who introduced me to the world of OT and I soon found out that I also loved this profession. We take pride in being an OT couple and love to learn from each other and grow as therapists. |
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| David Movsesian '19 & Linda Kalfayan '19 We met during orientation before pharmacy school started. A mutual friend introduced us in the Commons. Then we went to the frat house barbecue that night. We started talking and realized pretty early on that we had a spark. We started dating P1 year in November. We stayed together throughout pharmacy school, helping each other get through classes and studying those crazy hours. We grew together through it all and it made our relationship stronger. We talked about getting married in school but decided to wait until after graduation. I proposed Nov 2019 and, even through COVID, we became happily married in Sept 2020. Crazy how time flies, but we couldn't be happier! Pharmacy school changed our lives forever! Oh, and we were class couple ;) | Bill Palazzolo '00 & Krisinda Snyder '00 If you ask Krisinda Palazzolo (maiden name Snyder), it was love at first sight when she met "Bill", William Palazzolo, at orientation for the Physician Assistant Program in March of 1998. The two dated throughout PA school and Bill romantically proposed after graduation in Rome, Italy at the Trevi Fountain in August of 2000; they married in August of 2002. The sweetheart couple now resides in Dexter, Michigan, with their children, "Will", William Jr., 17, Cecelia, 15, and their very sweet black lab puppy Rocco. They both work at the University of Michigan, Bill as the Director of Clinical Operations for the Department of Surgery and Krisinda as the Director of Preoperative Services and also a Director in Human Resources; both continue to see patients in the Department of Surgery. Love at first sight is real and long-lasting! |
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| Todd Patzer '04 & Diane Kluska '04 We first met in exercise physiology when Todd missed a lecture and asked to borrow my notes! Our first day in PT school, my car was broken into at Shapiro Hall, where we had our first year before moving to the new building (which isn't so new anymore!). He waited with me while the police came to file a report. We started studying together for everything and became the best of friends. We graduated in 2004 and started dating shortly after. We got married in 2007 and are going strong 13 years later. 😊 | Kevin Piper '17 & Mara Monte '16 Kevin and Mara caught each other's eye at one of the initial OT meetings when Mara was volunteering and Kevin was attending as an incoming student. The next week, they attended the annual OT Detroit Tigers game tailgate where both the second and first-year students get to know each other. They have been together ever since. |
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| Aaron Ramaut '12 & Brittany Wagner '12 We met while in the Wayne State radiologic technology program at Henry Ford Hospital in 2010, we started dating in 2011. We bonded over our studies, clinicals, and '90s alternative music. Our first date was at Ruby Tuesday's on a rare night free of studying or working at the hospital! We now have a son, Nolan, and a little brother on the way due this July. | Tony Ruvolo '14 & Courtney Ehred '14 Tony and I started dating in our second year of PT school, after spending more time together on a class trip to Florida. We both had previously dated other people within our class, ha! We graduated in 2014 and were married in 2016. We have three sons, Thomas (3), Peter (3 months) and our son Sebastian in heaven. |
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| Nick Sapienza '14 & Maggie Kokoszka '16 We met during my senior year in the radiologic technology program in 2015; Nick had just started working as a tech and so it was nice to relate to someone who had recently graduated from the same program. We didn't really get to get to know each other until I graduated, and the rest is history! | Mitch Seeling '17 & Alyssa Thornton '17 Mitch and I met in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. We graduated in 2017 and got married in 2020 just before the pandemic started in full force! Mitch always came to my house to study since he commuted almost an hour to school, but really he would just play with our dog, Kahlua, and that sealed the deal! |
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| Nick Seger '13 & Cassie Wedlick '13 Nick and I met when we both started the radiologic technology program together in 2011. At the beginning, we didn't really interact much, just during class since we did not have any clinical rotations together. But, when we were eligible to work as student technologists our relationship grew closer. As a class, we decided on who would work in what departments and what shifts of those who wanted. Nick later told me that he purposely picked the days and shifts that he would work that would match with mine so we could work together. We started dating halfway through x-ray school in 2012, and have been inseparable since. We have been married for over three years, have a 2-year-old son, are expecting a daughter in May, and we both still work in radiology within the Henry Ford Health System. | Adam Stort '18 & Carly Kyriazis '18 Adam and I graduated with the Class of 2018! We met in May 2016 when we started PA school; it wasn't until second semester that we started having study dates and ultimately started our relationship in March 2017. After graduating and both starting careers as physician assistants in emergency medicine, traveling around the world, countless adventures, and working through a pandemic, almost four years later we got engaged in Detroit where we first met, and we plan to get married on September 25, 2021! |
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| Tony Tayar '19 & Sandra Mikhail '19 We met at Oakland University during undergraduate school and were friends/acquaintances. During pharmacy school, we became closer friends. We had a close circle that included our best friends, Andrew and Gabi, who are also getting married after meeting in pharmacy school! It was not until our fourth year when we had our academic rotation together with Dr. Salinitiri that we began dating. Being friends for years before dating makes our relationship so much stronger and we do have Dr. Salinitri to thank for putting us together on rotation when both of our original rotations got cancelled. | Zachary Zitnik '19 & Erin Snyder '18 We met at the beginning of the OT program and have been together for over four years now! We got married on June 22, 2019, and just bought our first house a month ago. We first met at orientation for the OT program and hit it off, and ended up exchanging phone numbers a few days later. We started studying for exams together and started dating soon after that! We realized pretty quickly that we were serious about each other, and the rest is history. 😊 |