Valentine's Day love stories rooted at Albion Albion College

February 14, 2025

Both psychology majors and residents of Wesley Hall, Alondra Alcázar ’20 and Marlon Martin ’20 became aware of each other almost immediately after starting classes at Albion College.

“His room was right above mine but we never spoke because at the time I was in a different relationship,” Alondra remembered. “We always had similar classes because we both majored in psychology. It was until my senior year at Albion that we spoke because I was finally single and we had a psychology class together and slowly he would walk me out of class.”

Marlon did not sleep on his opportunity which was four years in the making.

“After class he would give me some swipes to use at the KC since I wasn’t on the meal plan anymore and slowly but surely we started to gain feelings for one another,” she said. “Thanks to Albion we are now together. If we wouldn’t have met at Albion our paths would’ve never crossed. I was born and raised in Chicago, Marlon is from Monroe, Michigan. Albion allowed us to find each other.”

The couple celebrated their fifth anniversary together in January of this year. They live in Chicago. They are among many couples who found or cemented their love for each other while at Albion. We celebrate a few of those unions on this Valentine’s Day.

Shared academic pursuit became personal

Megan Borgeling ’11 arrived at her Albion College German class quite unprepared. Fortunately, Adam Stowe ’11 was willing to help.

“I didn’t have my book yet,” Megan recalled. “He sat next to me in class and shared his book. I thought he was really sweet so I didn’t buy my book for a while so we could spend more time together by studying and completing our homework. We still have the German textbook.”

Eventually, they would share more than a book. The couple married five years ago at Goodrich Chapel. They live in Horton, Michigan.

A love journey that led to Albion

Alaina Pellar-Klooster ’22 and Ryan Klooster ’22 have known each other since they were toddlers.

“We went to the same preschool and our family became friends,” she said. “We were always in each other’s orbits. Neither of us really remember formally meeting each other nor do we really remember life before each other. After preschool we ended up at the same elementary and middle school too. We were never that far away from each other.”

Ryan chose Albion while Alaina enrolled at Western Michigan University (WMU). 

“As long distance relationships go it wasn’t that bad. The distance certainly could have been worse considering some of the colleges I was considering attending,” Alaina said. “But I was having a hard time making friends at WMU and I was just really lonely. That, coupled with some health concerns that made me want to be closer to home, is why I ended up transferring to Albion during my sophomore year.”

The couple married in 2022. They live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A memorable student orientation

Diana Tello Brouwers ’22 and Javon Brouwers ’23 made quick work of the matchmaking game.

“We met the first day of Transfer Student Orientation in 2019,” Diana recalled. “We immediately clicked and began hanging out with each other outside of our classes. We bonded over Russian cartoons (Cheburashka) and the movie Logan. We have been inseparable ever since.”

The couple married in 2023 and live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Matches made during athletic competition

Samantha (Salhaney) Galla ’12 and Mychal Galla  ’11 met at an intramural soccer match.

“A couple of his teammates needed a few women to sub for a couple games. Mychal was the goalie and after the game we started talking,” Samantha said.”Nothing came of it until I was visiting some friends at Alpha Tau Omega one Friday night. I was giving out my phone number to another friend and he heard I had a 616 area code (which was rare to find another west sider phone number) After that he asked for my number as well and the rest is history.”

They started dating 2011, were engaged 2014, and married in 2015. They have one son (Oliver) and live in Grand Rapids.

Picking up more than a game at the Dow

Autumn (Charnley) Hart ’09 and Daniel Hart ’09 also met during some friendly, athletic competition; in this case a pickup basketball game at the Dow Recreational and Wellness Center.

“After our initial meeting we got to know each other through Wesley Fellowship, chapel, and other common activities/groups, through which we gained a wonderful group of mutual friends,” she said. 

Now married for 14 years, with two daughters, Autumn and Daniel live in Mount Clemens, Michigan with the children Elodie (6) and Ailey (3). 

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