These Fowler Alums Met Their Match at SDSU
Some alumni at San Diego State University ended up with more than just a good education during their college years: These former students of the Fowler College of Business found their life partners on campus as well.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, the SDSU Fowler News Team caught up with a few of these couples discoverSDSU brought them together and learn more about what they’re doing now.
Bob Abramson (’74, Finance) and Amy Abramson (’77, Public Administration)
Abramson Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little about how/where you met at San Diego State?
We met in September of 1973 just before the start of the fall semester. Bob was a senior and I was a freshman. We met when a group of us, including my new roommate and some other friends of hers, went to dinner. Bob was invited to go because he was a friend of a friend. We went to The Steer Burger for dinner and I made sure I sat at the same table as Bob and went in the same car. Bob asked for my phone number, but then he didn't call me.
About two weeks later we ran into each other on campus, and he apologized for not calling. He asked me to go to a party that night. It turned out the party was being hosted by a friend of my older brother. It's a small world! After that night we were inseparable.
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
After Bob graduated in May of 1974, he moved back to Van Nuys and I stayed at SDSU. We broke up the summer of 1975, but then in October of 1975 we got back together and were unofficially engaged. We continued our long-distance relationship until I graduated in May of 1977.We set the date on the day I graduated, and we were married on October 22, 1977.
Q: What are you doing currently?
We are currently living the life of retirees. Bob retired in May 2020 in the middle of COVID. I retired from work in 1989 to be a stay-at home-mom. I currently volunteer at LAX at the information desk and at our local community theater as an usher. I'm also treasurer for Kiwanis Club of Redondo Beach. Bob is on the board of our HOA in Incline Village, spends time on the golf course and works out at the gym. Bob serves on the Fowler Advisory Council for the Fowler School of Business. He also teaches an insurance class at SDSU and mentors a student in the finance department. We have season tickets to UCLA basketball and football. We also try to attend some SDSU sporting events.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
San Diego State turned out to be a wonderful place to get a quality education along with an outstanding place to make new friends and find your soulmate!!
Tara Giangiordano (’01, accounting) and Mike Giangiordano (’01, ENS-physical education)
Giangiordano's Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about how/where you met at San Diego State?
We met on the steps of Kappa Alpha fraternity in February 1998. We dated on and off for a few months, but the timing just wasn't right for us then.
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
We lost touch but I'd always considered him "the one that got away". In 2005 he emailed out of the blue and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. We've been inseparable ever since. We got engaged in 2007 and were married on August 8, 2008 (8/8/08).
Q: What are you doing currently?
We currently have two amazing kids that keep us on our toes (ages 6 and 8). They are the light of our lives. Besides that, I am a real estate accountant and Mike is a software specialist for a data validation company.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
We even had a black and red themed wedding in honor of SDSU!
Spring Glover (’00, management information systems) and La’Roi Glover (’08, public administration)
Glover Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little about how/where you met at San Diego State?
La’Roi and I originally met in high school. We are both from San Diego, and I went to La Jolla High School and he went to Point Loma High School. We met through mutual friends, but we didn’t date until we came to SDSU.
When I enrolled at SDSU as a freshman, we both lived in the Villa Alvarado Dorms. That year we took a bowling class together and got to know each other better. He left for the NFL the following year and I stayed at school and obtained my BS in management information systems.
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
We got in engaged in 2000 while we were on vacation in the Bahamas. We were married at La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla on July 14, 2002. This year we will celebrate our 20-year anniversary. We have three children, La’Roi Glover JR. (LJ), Noemie Gabrielle Glover and Sophia Bella Glover.
Q: What are you doing currently?
I am an interior designer and he is a football coach.
Josh Koehnen (’99, finance/’03, MSBA) and Chelsea Koehnen (’99, journalism)
Koehnen's Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about how/where you met at San Diego State?
We met in February 1997 through SDSU’s fraternity system when we were sophomores. Chelsea was in Pi Beta Phi and Josh was in Sigma Nu. Pi Phi and Sigma Nu had a “Pajama-Jam” exchange and the moment the Pi Phi’s walked into the Sigma Nu house, we instantly connected. We spent most of the night together dancing and chatting and later realized that we had a geology class together with 100 other students. From there, we went to many dances, formals and spring break trips together — and also took more classes together, like Spanish. We spent the next 2 ½ years dating and graduated together in December of 1999.
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
Right after college, we both started our careers and continued dating. Chelsea worked at an advertising agency in La Jolla and Josh worked as a junior planner at a financial planning company. Eventually, we moved in together in Pacific Beach right next to Crest Liquor. We continued to work and date and then purchased a condo together in Mission Valley. After Josh completed his MSBA program at SDSU, we got engaged in Coronado and ultimately got married at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines on April 24, 2004. Four years later we had our first child, Kaylie, and soon after that we had two more daughters, Ella and Avery. We live in La Costa with our three daughters and adorable cavapoo, Parker.
Q: What are you doing currently?
Chelsea still works in marketing and spends time volunteering with National Charity League (NCL) and driving the girls to their many activities. Our lives pretty much revolve around the kids' activities. Josh is the managing partner at Premier Wealth Advisors, a small, independent wealth management firm located in Del Mar. We have been Aztec football and basketball season ticket holders pretty much since we graduated, and Josh rarely misses a home game. Josh takes the girls on several camping trips each year through the Encinitas YMCA's Adventure Guides program.
Ricardo (Rick) Leyva (’97, finance) and Kristina Leyva (’98, liberal studies)
Leyva's Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little about how/where you met at San Diego State?
I was a freshman living at Zura Hall in 1994 and we met at the Sigma Nu house (that spring I ended up rushing Kappa Alpha Theta). Rick was a Sigma Nu.
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
Rick proposed at Mr. A's in 1998. We were married in August of 1999 at the Immaculata at USD.
Q: What are you doing currently?
We left San Diego for about six years for Rick to pursue work opportunities in Miami. We had two children there and then decided we wanted to be back in San Diego to raise our kids, Isabella, 17 (who is currently waiting on her application decision from SDSU!) and Riley, 15.
Rick is a successful managing director and senior partner at Snowden Lane Partners working primarily with international clients. He definitely made good on his SDSU business degree. I began my career in San Diego in the wireless site acquisition industry and upon returning to San Diego from Miami, I transitioned to residential real estate. Now, I am home to manage our busy household and catch every minute possible with our kids before they take off on their own college journeys.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We are proud SDSU alumni, and we just bought our Aztec football season tickets for next year.
Deborah McNulty (’82, marketing) and Shane McNulty (’83, marketing)
McNulty's Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little about how/where you met at San Diego State?
We met in economics class in fall of 1979. Shane would say that he sat behind me in class and noticed that I wore a red and white halter top and white jeans. It would have been our sophomore year. We both lived in the Tarastec dormitory. I lived on the third floor. He lived on the second floor. We got to know each-other better in the spring semester. We had other classes together and were study partners. He had a girlfriend at school and I had a boyfriend back home at that point. Our first official date was the Spring Dorm Formal on April 25, 1980. On a funny note, our daughter asked how we made plans to meet up back then. We told her we used to write each-other notes in the classifieds in the Daily Aztec newspaper. I still have a couple of those notes.
Q: When were you engaged? When did you get married?
We were engaged on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1987, and married on October 3, 1987.
Q: What are you doing currently?
Shane is a commercial real estate broker with CBRE. I had a career in telecom and am now an independent clothing stylist for a women’s clothing brand named cabi.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We have raised three children, two boys and one girl. All have graduated college (one from Cal Poly, one from Sonoma State and one from UCSB). All are living on their own, so we are empty nesting and traveling as much as time permits.
Deidre Murphy (’91, marketing) and Bob Murphy (’91, management)
Murphy's Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about how/where you met at San Diego State?
Bob and I met on the first day of school for fall semester Aug 31, 1987. We were both still 17-years-old. We had both done the orientation and been told that if we had a class in Adams Humanities, that we should go early because it was a confusing building. We both showed up almost an hour early for our English 100 class and started talking. Turned out, we had our morning science and science lab together, we were the same major (business), had the same M-W-F schedule and both lived in Maya Hall. SDSU really wanted us to meet.
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
We got engaged in the summer between our junior and senior year. I spent a lot of my senior year planning a wedding. We graduated in May of 1991 and got married July 6, 1991. We've been happily married for 30 years.
Q: What are your current positions?
Right out of college, Bob started working for his family business in Palmdale, California. He was a management major and used his degree to grow the company. He is now president of MurCal in Palmdale. I was a marketing major and started working for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I worked there for five years before getting my teaching credential. I taught elementary school before going back to school again for a degree in communication disorders. I am now the speech teacher at an elementary school in Palmdale.
Rebecca Reininger (’11, management) and Eric Reininger (’11, hospitality/tourism management)
Reininger's Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about how/where you met at San Diego State?
Eric’s interpretation: Rebecca used to stalk me in East Commons. It’s where I would take a break between morning classes, and she would go to East Commons for Salad Sensations. I’d usually be sleeping. Made the rookie mistake of having an 8 a.m. Monday/Wednesday/Friday class my first semester. We stayed in touch through mutual friends in Zura, the Greek community, and had a few classes. She asked for my number sophomore year in stats for “study help.” Junior year, she asked me to her sorority formal out of the blue, and here we are 11 years later!
Rebecca’s interpretation: We met freshman year in Zura. We had a few classes together and stayed in touch through the Greek community. Started dating junior year after I asked Eric to my sorority formal (Kappa Delta). Funny story is, I had the wrong phone number for Eric (he switched his phone number), and a mutual friend of ours, James Garfield, called him out for not responding to my invite. It’s a good thing he did!
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
We got engaged December 12, 2012, at Balboa Park. The idea of picking 12/12/12 was that it would never happen again in our lifetime, so it was now or never to pop the question. We then got married October 2013 at Bahia Hotel in Mission Bay. It was the best night ever! Shout out to Kadi Duff (HTM alum with me) who was our event manager at the time.
Q: What are you doing currently?
Eric - medical software sales for Kareo
Rebecca - office manager for Clark & Company CPAsOutside of work, we like to take walks in the neighborhood with our son Landon, check out local restaurants and foods in our hometown (now Irvine, CA), and are prepping for the arrival of baby number two in July 2022! San Diego will always have a special place in our heart, and we still visit often.
4. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
If it weren't for SDSU, we wouldn't have ever met. Crazy thought to have, right?
Shabrina Shahzad (’92, management information systems) and Ali Shahzad (’94, civil engineering)
Shahzad's Q&A
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about how/where you met at San Diego State?
We met on campus while we were both working at Love Library as student assistants. Shabrina was working in the IT department on the lower level and Ali was a searcher in the circulation department.
Q: When did you get engaged? When did you get married?
We got engaged in fall of 1994 after we graduated and got married in December 1995.
Q: What are you doing currently?
Shabrina is a senior integration consultant at UKG, and Ali is a managing director/senior engineer KOA Corporation. We have two daughters both freshmen: Alyssa is at Scripps Ranch High School and Samara is at San Diego State.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Shabrina joined San Diego State as an undergrad because her mom (Yesho Pradhan – ’87, MPH) was working on a master’s degree there. Now, our older daughter, Samara, (standing between us in the recent campus picture) is a freshman at San Diego State’s in the Fowler College of Business. That makes her the third-generation Aztec in the family!
