Meet Mr. & Mrs. Greyhound

Loyola students learn and grow in many ways during their time on the Evergreen campus. They also connect with faculty who become their mentors and inspiration. And, maybe more often than you might think, they find love.

During this season of love, Loyola magazine invited some double-Greyhound couples to share their Loyola love stories...

Meet a few Loyola grads whose hearts are joined in love for one another and for those warm Evergreen memories they share.

Denis, ’03, MBA ’04, and Suzanne Sheehy Lafreniere, ’03

We met the first day of school freshman year in French class. We were friends for a long time and started dating the end of Junior year. We married at the Alumni Chapel in August 2004, the year after we graduated.”

John and Monica Behrens Keogh, both Class of 2005

“We met on our very first day at Loyola since we lived down the hall from each other in Middle Courtyard. I can still remember him as the boy who constantly had a smile on his face because he was so happy to be at college. We were both majoring in biology and had the same group of friends, but neither of us was interested in a serious relationship. Little did we know how ‘serious’ our relationship would become. We went on to date throughout our days at Loyola. We even ended up studying abroad in Australia together. In 2005, we both graduated with B.S. degrees in Biology, summa cum laude. We got married in May 2009, and our daughter, Grace, was born in February 2014.”

Kevin Dean, ’86, and Trang Nguyen Dean, ’88

“We just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary this January! We’re happily married with two beautiful children, Rebecca, a senior at Washington and Lee University, and Ryan, a second-year at University of Virginia… and all this was made possible on our very first day at Loyola College, when we met each other at new student orientation! Trang was there as a freshman, and Kevin, even though he was a Junior, had to attend orientation because he was a transfer student. Little did he know that little chore would lead to his luckiest encounter. We both went to work for Verizon after graduation, we got married, and it’s been bliss ever since!”

Michael, ’04, and Theresa Berenato Drapkin, ’05

“At Loyola we traveled in different circles, but we knew of each other’s names. We didn’t have any classes together. Michael graduated a year before me. He was living in Washington, D.C., working, and right after graduation I too moved to D.C. and worked in the city for a couple of years. But our paths never crossed. I moved back to Baltimore for a year or two, but I still didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I decided to move to New York City. Michael moved back to Baltimore. I was living in Butcher’s Hill and he moved to Fell’s Point. He didn’t really know anyone, so he started hanging out with my group of friends. He had signed a year-long lease, but I basically said, ‘I’m moving to New York, I think you should, too.’ He ended up breaking his lease after three months and moved to New York. I kept telling everyone about my good friend, Mike. Then finally after a year we really started dating.”

They were married in 2012. Today Theresa is an artist and graphic designer and Mike runs a wine shop in Kingston, N.Y.

David Bergamo, ’10, and Christina Verga Bergamo, ’10, M.A. ’15

“It all started sophomore year during the spring semester of 2008, when Christina transferred into Dave’s section of Italian IV. While we both lived on the same floor in Campion Towers sophomore year, we did not meet until January. We quickly became Italian study buddies and great friends, and stayed in touch while Christina studied abroad in Australia the following semester. We started officially dating during February of our junior year. After graduating in 2010, we dated long-distance for more than three years, and then another year of long-distance after getting engaged in August 2013, all while Christina worked as an admission counselor in the office of undergraduate admission at Loyola as well as completing her master’s degree, and while Dave did clinical research at the University of Pennsylvania and started medical school at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson medical school in New Jersey. On May 30, 2015, we were married at St. Catharine Church in Spring Lake, N.J., and we currently live in Piscataway, N.J. Dave is a fourth-year medical student, graduating in May, while Christina is a college counselor at Trinity Hall high school.”

Jake and Alyssa Whiteman Dykstra, both Class of 2014

This past Sept. 19, 2015, I married Jake (Jacob) Dykstra, and we met freshman year on the 7th floor of Campion!

Eric, ’97, and Tara Knapp Koup, ’98

“We met at Loyola in January 1995. We had a lot of the same friends, but my first memory of spending time just with Eric was when all of our friends were planning on seeing a movie, but there wasn’t enough room in the cars, so Eric and I stayed behind. We remained friends that spring and summer, and we started dating the following fall. We were married three years later, in September 1998. The first of our Loyola friends to wed, we were only 22 and 23 at the time. We went to Disney World for our honeymoon. We still love visiting Disney World and Baltimore! We now have three children (ages 11, 10, and 4), and we live in Eric’s childhood home in Paoli, Pa. This fall, we are looking forward to celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary.”

Are you a double-Loyola-grad couple? Share your Loyola love story and a photo to magazine@loyola.edu and Loyola magazine may be in touch with you for a future story.