As the salt continues to melt the icy Locust Walk, we welcome the month of February. Penn clubs are calling for you to buy their candy grams and the drug stores are calling for you to buy their Valentine's teddy bears. As you engage in (or hide from) the festivities of Valentine's Day, we ask that you turn your attention from the paper mache to something else: actual love.
Yes, love is on the brain and not just during February.
It’s true, among Penn’s stony exterior of serious academia, there's something much more sinister lingering. Although we may not see it, it’s between every brick on Locust, within the dusty books in Van Pelt, definitely inside every bite of Pret's mac and cheese. Love is everywhere.
Eyes have been locked in your favorite study spot, futures have been found in your Econ class, and soulmates in your favorite frat. There is a mounting history of Penn love, right here beneath our very noses. Love hasn't always been dead at Penn, it’s just taken respite where we aren’t looking.
So, let’s start looking. Let’s start bringing to light what exists in the shadows and talk about the love that we know exists here. The best way to talk about the future of Penn love is to first visit those who came before us — their connections, their love, and the legacies they left behind.
For Harnwell College House residents, the history of love is closer than you think.
John Macri, an International Relations major, met Ali Morales, a Wharton student concentrating in marketing, through a mutual friend on their floor the first night of their first year. John quickly became a part of their friend group. Neither were looking for romance: Ali wasn’t focused on dating during college, and John saw her as a friend at first.
But soon, through late nights watching a lot of "Mob Wives," banter about Ali’s love for the New York Giants, and a classic Saint Paddy’s day kiss, Ali and John discovered a love that, to them, was “inevitable.” Their sophomore year in adjacent Harnwell rooms helped their budding interest bloom. They feel their relationship “spurred from the community in the college houses. Without the community building that the RAs do, we would not have been as close as friends or gotten together.”
Their first date? A Philadelphia classic — wandering down South Street for cheesesteaks, quickly huddling under an umbrella together to escape the sudden downpour. Their Penn romance was not all a walk in the park; John left only a year into their relationship to study abroad. Ali felt that “campus was less bright without him there.” The time difference and separation was hard, but especially for Ali. Her father immigrated to the US as a teenager and her mother didn't earn a college degree. Penn was difficult for her, and Ali didn’t fit the mold of what a Penn or Ivy League student usually looks like. Ali feels “lucky to have found people like John to have given [her] love and support during that time.”
John and Ali feel it was their close bond as friends that helped them set a foundation for their future relationship. When asked for any advice they might have for current Penn students, they thought the answer was simple: “you should enjoy spending time with each other.” John says, seeking out a relationship at Penn isn’t bad, but “it can easily become another point of something to achieve.” This tension takes away from the process of finding someone that you just enjoy getting to know and hanging out with.
More than an origin point, Penn is woven deeply throughout the pair's connection. During the beloved Penn tradition Spring Fling, Ali went out with friends and John came to meet them at Allegro’s afterwards. It was then when Ali first told John she loved him, to which he replied the same without hesitation. The demands of Penn’s campus life taught them the importance of patience and care. “Penn is so difficult on students, it takes a lot out of you, you learn how to be supportive and how to support other people. We took to supporting the others around us, which led to us having an immense patience in supporting each other in our relationship.”
After their time together at Penn, the pair moved in together. They were starting new careers, just moved into a one-bedroom apartment, when then the pandemic hit. Their relationship had big tests, not without pitfalls. “If we can continue to love each other and support each other through one of the most difficult times we have ever lived through, then this is the person I want to be together with for the rest of our tribulations in life,” Ali reflected.
The couple tied the knot this past October, with their undergraduate Harnwell house dean officiating their wedding. The two have “figured out how the world works together,” and their stories have landed them back at Penn. After graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2019, John pursued a master's degree in the School of Social Policy & Practice, and he currently holds the position of student programs coordinator at Perry World House. After graduating from Wharton the same year, Ali works at the University as the associate director in alumni relations, and is currently a student in the Graduate School of Education. She will be graduating in 2027.
John and Ali’s beautiful story is proof that love at Penn isn’t just possible — it’s inevitable. And their story isn’t the only one.
To truly understand Penn’s love legacy, we need your stories too. Penn students, alumni, staff, anyone who has experienced love at Penn (we know you have!). Love comes in many forms, not just a wedding ring on your finger. If you love the friends that you made here, the roommates who you couldn’t live without, we want to hear it, and we want to share your story. Submit your stories at the QR code below and share how you love at Penn.
To change the culture at Penn, we have to talk. We will share our critiques and stories on the dating scene and all those situationships that seem to peter off at the three month mark, and in return, we hope to hear your opinions too. If you have an idea about love at Penn, we would love to share your guest column.
Penn may challenge us, but love endures, waiting in the places we least expect. So, let’s find it.
LOVE, Tiyya and Piper.
TIYYA GEIGER is a College first year studying political science from Lancaster, Pa. Her email address is tiyyag@sas.upenn.edu.
PIPER SLINKA-PETKA is a College first year studying health and societies from West Virginia. Her email address is pipersp@sas.upenn.edu.
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