Couples on Campus

Photo by Megan Hartman

By: Jonelle Bobak

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Tracy Jessup is the vice president for Christian Life and Service. He is married to Teresa Jessup and their anniversary is June 24. They met in the OMG Music Building when Tracy and his friends were jamming out to some music.

Fun Fact: Teresa’s senior year she was on the Homecoming Court and Tracy was her escort. It was pouring down rain and very windy, so Tracy had a umbrella to help keep Teresa dry. Teresa’s name was announced as Homecoming Queen and while Tracy was walking with her towards the platform his umbrella inverted. He tried to put it back to its original form by jerking it up and down, but had no luck. The crowd roared with laughter. Very few people have let Tracy live that down.

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Mindy Robinson is the Campus Ministry United Intern she is married to Chase Robinson. Their anniversary is September 21. They met at a F.O.C.U.S kick-off party. Mindy was the F.O.C.U.S leader and Chase was in her group.

Fun Fact: One weekend when they were dating, Chase was planning a date. He took Mindy to his church in Lawndale and raked up piles of leaves so they could jump in them. They soon grew hungry and wanted to find a Moe’s Southwest Grill. They looked up the closest one and found out there was one in Forest City. They plugged it into their GPS and began to drive. They ended up pulling into a vacant cornfield. They make the joke today that is was “Moe’s Cornfield.”

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James Mauney is a senior and he is engaged to Stephanie Hicks, with a date to marry in October 2015. They first met during Mauney’s freshman orientation, they began to hangout and the following week, Mauney invited Hicks to watch a baptism at Broad River.

Fun Fact: The semester before James proposed, he lied to Stephanie telling her he didn’t have the money to buy an engagement ring and to not expect anything for a while. All along he was planning to propose. “When I asked her to marry me she was so shocked the whole night and for about the next week,” said James.

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Allan is a junior majoring in Youth Discipleship and Mary is a senior studying Social Sciences. Their anniversary is December 18. They first met when Mary was the leader of Alan’s F.O.C.U.S team.

Fun Fact: Mary and her co-focus leader were calling everyone on their team to tell them who they were and about their first meeting. They called Alan on Mary’s phone and he didn’t answer. Five minutes later he called back. At that time Mary had a basic phone. When she hit the middle button it sent a text message to the person who was calling. “Usually it sent ‘I’ll call back later’ or something of the sort, however, when Alan called and I accidentally hit the middle button, my phone sent ‘<3’, a heart. That was Alan’s first interaction with me. God’s funny.” said Mary.

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Neal Payne is the Associate Minister for Student Ministries and he is married to Amber Payne. Their anniversary is December 12. They first met when Neal’s friend introduced him to his then girlfriend, Amber. They began dating years later when they attended the same mission trip to Puerto Rico.

Fun Fact: During the time that Neal and Amber were dating they had never kissed in front friends or family out of respect for those around them. So when their wedding day finally arrived, Amber was very nervous to kiss in front of everyone. “When it came time to “kiss the bride” I had barely got a peck on the lips when she abruptly pulled away. Everyone in the audience laughed, so it wasn’t too embarrassing!” said Neal. 

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Tyler Davis is the Assistant Director of Housing and Residence Education and he is married to Stephanie Davis. Their anniversary is July 16. They first met on a mission trip to New Orleans their first semester at GWU.

Fun Fact: With both Tyler and Stephanie being of the adventurous sort they decided to hike up Crowder’s Mountain. They arrived at 4p.m. and began to hike. By the time they made it to the top of the mountain it starting to grow dark. They sat down for the next hour to see the lights from Charlotte. “By this point, it was very dark, but we came prepared with flashlights to make our way back down the mountain. All of sudden we started hearing a faint call through woods saying, ‘Tyler… Stephanie… Tyler…’ Stephanie and I didn’t realize hikers were supposed to be off the mountain before dark, and soon found out that the park ranger was making her way up the mountain in search for us,” said Tyler. They were given an escorted ride down the mountain by the park ranger and meeting them at the bottom was a police car. The officer approached them and asked for both of their license and searched their bags. “Talk about being scared at this point, we thought we were going to be arrested,” said Tyler. The officer issued them a warning because they could have been considered trespassers.

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Jeff is the Operations Manager/Program Director for WGWG and he is married to Lydia Powell. Their anniversary is July 1. They first met when at a student talent show.

Fun Fact: Before Jeff and Lydia started to date Lydia came to know that he was a history buff and asks him to help her study for a test. During the study session she suggested that they go see a movie. After they started dating she admitted that the studying session was a ploy to create an opportunity to ask him to a movie.

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Noel is the Associate Vice President for Gardner-Webb’s Communications & Marketing and he is married to Beth. They first met at a GWU dance through mutual friends.

Fun Fact: Noel had never been thrown a surprise birthday party before and Beth wanted to change that. She ended up invited all of his friends and having a surprise party in his own apartment. “I had no idea,” said Noel.

2 Comments

  1. Thanks for the interview. Another fun fact about the Noel T. Manning II & Beth Lamb Manning experience: The first time she saw me on campus was at a GW Football Game at Spangler stadium. I was running up and down the stands, throwing a huge beach ball throughout the crowd, and acting generally a bit crazy. Beth said when she saw me doing all this, she turned to a friend and asked “Who is that idiot?” … and now after 20 years of marriage, and 26 years of friendship … she still thinks I do idiotic things from time to time … but she loves every minute of it… or is it that she loves me “in spite” of it? 🙂

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