HOUSING GUIDE | Freshman housing romance

For some upperclassmen, freshman housing was just the place they crashed after their first frat parties. But for these two couples, their first Penn homes were also the places they met their significant others.

Riepe College House:

The last person College sophomore Aria Kovalovich expected to play matchmaker in college was her mother. But during New Student Orientation, it was Aria’s mom who first recommended College sophomore Conrad Mascarenhas as a potential boyfriend.

“Conrad actually met my mom before he met me. He thought she was his pre-major advisor,” Aria said.

Both mentors in the Riepe College House Mentorship Program, Aria and Conrad met trying to find the Class of 1920 lounge for an introduction to their residential program. Throughout their first semesters at Penn, Aria and Conrad lived in the same hall and ran into each other often as a result. Their frequent run-ins eventually led to long runs along the Schuykill trail and ever longer conversations.

Throughout their second semester, Aria became ill and Conrad, like a true gentlemen, brought her Wawa in her time of need. Meanwhile, Conrad was busy pledging Sigma Nu and the two had a chance to bond over the confusion that often accompanies students as they maneuver their way through freshman year.

“We would have all these semi-philosophical talks on the roof of Riepe, endlessly over-analyzing things and trying to figure out Penn, freshman year and everything else, it was pretty funny,” Aria said.

Aria and Conrad also had Biology 101 together and would often grab breakfast in McClelland before going to class.

“We are just really good companions for one another, and being around him now is just as comforting as it was when we were just two friends in Riepe trying to figure out freshman year,” Aria said.

Hill College House:

Before Engineering sophomores Emily Pugh and Ryan Draper began dating, they confused each other for different people they’d met during NSO. Now they’ve been dating for over a year and are still going strong.

“Living in Hill, I think it gave us the opportunity to become friends organically before there was any romantic interest,” Pugh said.

As they tell the story, the two began connecting a few months into school, in part because they were living in close quarters in the 5th floor purple suite of Hill College House. Due to the fact that there was no air conditioning in Hill, their hall mates were forced out of their rooms and into common area, where they bonded over their shared misery. At all hours of the day, they could be found spending time in the lounges, socializing, and eating meals together in the dining hall just a few floors below their dorm rooms.

“The foundation of friendship blossomed into what seemed to be an interest on both sides,” Pugh said.

After a few months of bonding over shared interests such as movies on weeknights and fraternity parties on weekends, Emily and Ryan’s relationship began to evolve, much to the delight of their Hill hall mates.

Although they no longer live together on the same hall or even in the same building, they see each other frequently and often travel between their rooms in Harnwell and Gregory.

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