You complete me: Valentine's Day 2026 at Wayne State's CFPCA

Cupid strikes at the heart of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, bringing alumni couples together and, in many cases, inspiring generations of WSU family traditions.

Read how some Creative Warriors/Tartars became couples, and the role WSU's campus played.

Mary and Don Bartkowiak

How they met …

"Well, it all started with music," Don said. "Music has been - and continues to be - a family affair."

Mary Davis was temporarily certified to teach vocal music at East Detroit High School (now Eastpointe High School) while completing her music education coursework at Wayne State University. In need of a piano accompanist for her choirs, she contacted WSU jazz professor - and renowned Detroit-area pianist - Matt Michaels.

He recommended Don, a fellow Wayne State student completing his degree in Instrumental Music Education and student-teaching at a junior high school in the East Detroit school district. Don accepted the role, and Mary's students quickly became enthusiastic matchmakers, repeatedly urging her to "fall in love with him."

Although the chemistry was evident, Don and Mary initially remained friends. When Mary was laid off from her vocal music teaching position, Don was subsequently hired in the same district as a middle school band director.

Mary regrouped by accepting a position as secretary in WSU's Department of Music while continuing her studies - this time pursuing a degree in jazz studies. Later, when Don was laid off from his teaching role, the two began dating and performing together. Around the same time, they both made the bold decision to pursue bachelor's degrees in computer science, with Mary balancing full-time work alongside her coursework.

Mary completed her jazz studies degree, and later, both she and Don earned additional computer science degrees from Wayne State. Somewhere amid all that - studying, working, performing, and reinventing themselves - they got married.

Ultimately, Don spent his career in information technology while performing with Mary for over 30 years in the band they established, Rare Blend. Mary also worked as a wedding coordinator, choir director, and private piano and voice teacher.

Best memory of WSU

Both Mary and Don cite their time studying with Matt Michaels, professor and director of Jazz Studies at Wayne State, as especially formative and meaningful. His generosity, patience, and passion for music profoundly shaped their artistic development. Equally important, he modeled a commitment to sharing knowledge - an example that Mary and Don carried forward in their own teaching, mentoring, and performing careers.

Another highlight of Mary's college experience was touring Europe with the Wayne State University Chamber Singers, a 19-member choral ensemble, and competing in the 1979 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Similarly, one of Don's collegiate highlights was an international tour.

In 1982, he participated in the Wayne State University Symphonic Band concert tour of the People's Republic of China, performing in numerous major cities and appearing on live television. In addition to playing bassoon during the tour, Don was pianist for the jazz band.

Tartars/Warriors in the family

Ties to WSU runs deep in Mary and Don's family. Their daughter, Lynn Sholander, is a graduate of Wayne Law School and now serves on its faculty.

She and her husband, Larson, are the parents of two young children. Mary and Don's son, Jason, who is also a Wayne State graduate, earning a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a minor in music. He works as a Salesforce software developer and is an active bass player in the Detroit music community.

Thelma and Gregory Knas

How they met …

Thelma Curtis and Gregory Knas met in 1950 in a Wayne Choral class at then Wayne University. They started dating in 1954 and were married in 1958. Gregroy played in the Wayne Band and Orchestra from 1950 until graduation in 1954.

"When I graduated in 1954, I interviewed in Allen Park, Michigan, and began teaching there," Gregory said. "I remained with the Allen Park School System until I retired in 1992. Thelma taught vocal music in Detroit until we had our children."

Best memory of WSU

"Number one, of course, was meeting my wife at Wayne!" Gregory said. "I enjoyed my musical experience in band and orchestra, too."

Tartars/Warriors in the family

Their daughter, Kathy Knas Andrews, graduated in 1983 as an occupational therapist.

Chris (Bear) and Pete Orlik

How they met …

Pete entered WSU in the Fall of 1962, and Chris arrived one year later. Throughout their undergraduate years, she played clarinet in the Symphonic Band under Harry Begian and Pete was a clarinetist in the University Orchestra under Valter Poole.

While they initially crossed paths in the Music Building once Chris came to campus, their first real conversation was at the northbound Woodward Avenue bus stop on the late afternoon of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. It was a most somber chat - but followed by much more joyful meetings in the following days, months and years.

Though pursuing entirely different majors, they saw each other frequently in the Music Building basement where each had been assigned a locker for their instruments. Pete would often leave treats in Chris's locker, especially on Valentine's Days. These prizes once included a goldfish bowl complete with bubble-blowing pet.

The two dated through most of their later undergraduate years. Chris lived in Troy and Pete in Berkley, so it was not difficult to see each other off campus, as well as on. In the summers, Chris served as Elementary Band Director for the City of Troy Recreation Department. Pete took summer quarter classes and, in 1965, secured a copywriting internship at Campbell Ewald Advertising. He later served as assistant music director on WDET.

Both gave private clarinet lessons to help pay the bills. Chris did student teaching as a band director in Ferndale and Clawson in 1967, while Pete logged his first year of university teaching as an instructor in WSU's then Division of Mass Communications.

After they married amidst Detroit's turbulent late-1967 summer, Chris accepted the position of Junior High School Band Director for the Waterford Public Schools, while Pete continued at Wayne State as a full-time instructor and doctoral student.

By mid-1969, Chris completed her Masters and Pete his Ph.D. With Chris's unfailing support, Pete accepted a position as assistant professor of speech at Central Michigan University, while also assigned to initiate their broadcasting program that he, ultimately, nurtured to become the School of Broadcast & Cinematic Arts.

Over the past decades, Chris served as director of Elementary and Junior High Band in the rural Montabella Community Schools and then as director of Elementary and Junior High Orchestra in Mt. Pleasant, where she greatly expanded the program and its community outreach.

Best memory of WSU

"For us, these memories form a central collective. In our 1960s era, Wayne State did not provide the 'typical college experience.' Instead, it brought together diligent and diverse students of all ages who journeyed daily from across metropolitan Detroit to campus.

"WSU introduced you to rigorous, real-world curricula, taught by committed faculty and shared with students from multiple age groups, most all of whom were largely funding their own education," Chris and Pete said. "Particularly in the fine and communication arts, this environment created lifelong bonds of mutual support, admiration, and friendships. Wayne was a preeminent 'real world' - that unswervingly grounded you for life."

Tartars/Warriors in the family

None, at the moment.

Sarah Kominek and Grant Wickersham

How they met …

Sarah and Grant met at the Fisher Building, where he'd just been hired for his first job post-graduation at a PR firm. Sarah managed the coffee shop on the ground floor. She had just moved from Kalamazoo to study journalism at Wayne State that fall.

After stopping in the coffee shop most mornings, Grant struck up a conversation with Sarah in early 2018. When she said she was a journalism major at WSU, Grant replied that he'd just graduated from the same program. He mentioned letting him know if there was anything he could do to help, and they exchanged contact info.

"Some weeks later, she told me she'd gotten another job and was leaving the coffee shop," Grant said. "I suggested we go to Northern Lights Lounge to celebrate her new job. Neither of us knew going into it that this meetup, on Feb. 27, 2018, would be our first date of many. We've been together ever since."

They moved in together shortly before the pandemic - Grant, Sarah, and Euphrates (aka Fray), her cat and longtime companion. Upon graduation, Sarah began her journalism career, while Grant went from PR to corporate communications.

In February 2023, they bought a house in Detroit's Morningside neighborhood, where they still live. Grant also proposed to her that month in the Fisher Building, on Feb. 27, five years to the day after their first date. They wed that summer on June 15.

The following year, Grant returned to Wayne State as an employee within the Division of Development and Alumni Affairs. Currently, he's simultaneously pursuing a B.A. in law with the intent of taking the LSAT and attending Wayne Law. Sarah has also returned to WSU to pursue her MS in environmental science.

Best memory of WSU

"I don't know where I'd be without my Wayne State education," Grant said. "But my best memory is right now, working to fund lifechanging programs, scholarships and more on the communications team within the university's Division of Development and Alumni Affairs."

"My time at Wayne State was defined by the relationships I gained with my professors and fellow students at the CFPCA," Sarah said. "Returning to WSU to pursue my master's has been reminiscent, as I continue to build community and friendships with the people I study with."

Tartars/Warriors in the family

Grant's younger sister earned her B.A. from Wayne State, while Sarah's younger brother, Jeremy, is currently pursuing his B.A.

Chrystal and Shaun Wilson

How they met …

Cupid's arrow doesn't always strike in obvious ways. Sometimes, it lands quietly through alignment, shared values, and a season of reinvention.

For Chrystal Wilson, APR, and Shaun Wilson, that alignment was shaped long before their paths converged, grounded in the same place - Wayne State University - with both future alumni arriving during moments of transition.

Shaun was navigating the shift from military service to civilian leadership, bringing the discipline and perspective of a U.S. Marine Corps veteran into the classroom.

Chrystal was recalibrating her career path, moving from journalism toward public relations with a clearer sense of purpose and impact. In different years and different circumstances, Wayne State met them both exactly where they were.

As a city university, WSU has long served students whose lives don't follow a straight line. For Chrystal and Shaun, that reality defined their experience. Each arrived with lived experience, urgency and belief that education was not a pause but catalyst. Wayne State offered rigor, relevance and a learning environment deeply connected to Detroit.

A key part of that experience for both was participation in the Journalism Institute for Media Diversity, a program rooted in equity, representation, and ethical storytelling.

The Institute helped shape how they approached media not just as a profession, but as a responsibility - one that demands accuracy, humanity, and accountability. Those lessons echoed throughout their careers.

Today, Chrystal serves as Assistant Superintendent of Communications for Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan's largest urban public school district, leading strategic communications that support students, families, educators, and community stakeholders across Detroit.

Shaun is the Managing Partner of Cadence Corp. LLC, where he leads strategic communications, branding, and civic engagement work rooted in service and impact.

Their professional paths unfolded independently, yet reflected striking similarities of leadership, service, and a commitment to meaningful change.

Over time, those parallel roads aligned. What connected them was not timing or circumstance, but shared values shaped by Wayne State, Detroit, and family.

Their relationship reflects a later-chapter partnership, one built on growth, mutual respect, and a deep understanding of purpose. It's a reminder that love doesn't always announce itself loudly - sometimes it arrives through common ground.

Detroit remains central to Chrystal and Shaun's shared work and life. It is the backdrop for their leadership, service, and belief in the power of communication to strengthen institutions and communities. WSU's imprint is evident not just in their résumés, but in how they show up professionally and personally.

In 2025, Chrystal and Shaun received the PRSSA Alumni Achievement Award, recognizing their professional excellence and sustained contributions to the public relations field.

For them, the award serves as a quiet but powerful symbol: two alumni, shaped by the same university, whose separate journeys ultimately aligned in purpose and impact.

And Cupid's arrow, it turns out, doesn't always point to romance first. Sometimes, it leads to growth, service, and shared values - and lets everything else follow.

Amy (Lewis) Young and Kelly Young

How they met …

Kelly moved to Detroit and WSU in August 2001 to begin the doctoral program and served as a graduate assistant coach for the competitive debate team.

Amy was a former member of the WSU debate team, who Kelly had judged in competition in previous years.

She was working on her MA in PR and Organzational Communication and was a graduate assistant coach with the competitive speech team when Kelly began the graduate program.

They both took several courses together and became friends due to mutual friends. While spending time coaching and working in Manoogian Hall, the started dating in March 2002.

After dating for several years, the pair married Nov. 26, 2005. Kelly became an Assistant Professor and the Director of Forensics, overseeing the very program that led them to meet.

"Although we were both competitive debaters," Kelly said, "we do not argue with each other very often and when we do disagree, Amy usually wins."

Best memory of WSU

Working with Drs. George Ziegelmueller and Bernie Brock, whom Amy and Kelly both had as instructors and spent many hours with both professors.

"Both taught us many valuable academic and life lessons, and they frequently made us laugh," Kelly said. "Dr. Brock was one of the first people to predict that we would eventually date and Dr. Ziegelmueller was the one of the first people to learn that we were a couple."

They also have fond memories of being around WSU speech and debate alumni.

"Given the amount of time you work and travel with these people, you develop very strong connections with them, and many become as close as family members, bound by funny stories and memories of winning and the occasional bad defeat," Kelly said. "We continue to stay in contact with many alumni and count them among our friends."

Tartars/Warriors in the family

Amy's brother, Michael Lewis, and his wife, Kristin (Bell) Lewis, attended Wayne State University. He studied Criminal Justice and she studied Art Education, receiving both a BA and MA in Art Education, respectively.

Thank you to our alumni couples who shared their stories that bring joy and laughter to our hearts! If you and your significant other are alumni and would like to share your story, please let us know at [email protected] to be featured in a future Valentine's Day edition.

*Top illustration by Breana Brown, graphic design student in the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art, Art History, and Design.