\nEricka Darrah, Dylan Nguyen, and Antigone Antonakakis<\/h2>\n
![\"Ericka](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-cardoni_Antigone_Erika_Dylan24_017-1024x1024.jpg\")
Antigone is certain she established core memories \u2014\u00a0 a concept made popular by a movie from her childhood,\u00a0 Inside Out \u2014 in the early days of her friendship with Dylan and Ericka. \u201cThey\u2019re events that change the trajectory of\u00a0 your life,\u201d she says. She won\u2019t soon forget meeting and bonding with this friend group on Zoom. They often talked late into the night in what could be described as the pandemic-era equivalent of quiet-hours hangouts in the hallways of Travers-Wolfe. \u201cWe would be singing YouTube karaoke,\u201d she says. \u201cNot many people can say they had\u00a0 that college experience. It was a really great squad we\u00a0 had going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The queso doesn\u2019t stand alone
\nJosh Romero<\/h2>\n![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-cardoni_Josh_Romero24_081-1024x1024.jpg\")
Josh Romero at Mexican Mariachi Grill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJosh, a civil engineering major, says he feels a \u201cweird, unspoken camaraderie\u201d with the entire Class of 2024 because of how they all started. Case in point: convocation. He recalls eating a quesadilla and watching a screen of blank faces from home \u2014 a far cry from the usual pomp of marching onto Quimby\u2019s Prairie for a \u201cWelcome to TCNJ\u201d presidential address. He went to a virtual involvement fair, too, and signed up for club tennis even though he had no idea how that would work online. Spoiler: it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
From the heart
\nDiana Jacob and Vaidehi Valera<\/h2>\n![\"Diana](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-240418-MAC-584-1024x1024.jpg\")
Diana Jacob and Vaidehi Valera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cShe\u2019s Indian, a bio major, and she sings.\u201d That\u2019s what Diana noticed she had in common with Vaidehi when she first scrolled Vaidehi\u2019s Instagram. Online, and then in person, the two solidified a friendship as they studied for Chem 201, sang Bollywood duets, and served as leaders in the Indian Student Association together. \u201cI was really excited to actually see the people I met online,\u201d says Diana. \u201cEspecially Vaidehi, since we had become so close on text.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to lose touch with\u00a0 my Indian culture in college,\u201d says Vaidehi. \u201cEverything just lined up with the two of us; I knew we\u2019d get along.\u201d<\/p>\n
First impressions; fast friends
\nPaige Babino and Alexa Giacoio<\/h2>\n![\"Paige](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-Gutman_TCNJ_20240424_06-1018x1024.jpg\")
Paige Babino and Alexa Giacoio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPaige was one of only 1,168 students who returned to campus for the spring semester after an all-online start. But it wasn\u2019t quite what she had hoped. \u201cI ended up going home after two weeks,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was depressing. I was in a dorm alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as summer rolled around and she geared up for her sophomore year, she saw a post on the TCNJ Class of 2024 Facebook group advertising an opening in a Campus Town apartment. Paige dropped a comment that she was interested; Alexa was on the other end.<\/p>\n
Self-admitted overthinkers, the pair say they worried about living with a stranger, meeting each other for the first time as they moved into their new setup in Campus Town.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go with a random roommate, you don\u2019t have expectations,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cIt could be a flop, or it could be something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trip to Target and Starbucks in October of their sophomore year led to an inside joke about Chuck E. Cheese, and the \u201ca-ha\u201d moment they realized their friendship was the real deal.<\/p>\n
Together, TCNJ felt like home. Especially for Paige: \u201cFreshman year, I didn\u2019t want to be there. But sophomore year, I didn\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA random Facebook comment turned into one of the best friendships,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cWe\u2019ve already talked about being in each other\u2019s weddings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya in the middle
\nAdesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/h2>\n![\"Adesuwa](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080-x-1080_cardoni_Adesuwa_Maya_Neerjah24_086_ret2-1024x1024.jpg\")
Adesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere\u2019s a Latin phrase, omne trium perfectum<\/em>, meaning \u201ceverything that comes in threes is perfect.\u201d That seems to be the case in the friendship between Adesuwa, Maya, and Neerjah. But all three admit it took some work.<\/p>\nIt was Maya who pulled the friendship together. She became friends with Adesuwa and Neerjah, each separately at first. She and Neerjah were from neighboring towns and connected through Instagram. Maya and Adesuwa were applying to some of the same programs, such as the Bonner Community Scholars and Women in Learning and Leadership. Realizing they would be in some organizations together, Maya and Adesuwa planned to be roommates when campus reopened.<\/p>\n
They joke about it now, but Adesuwa and Neerjah got off to a rocky start. They all ended up living in Eickhoff Hall as sophomores \u2014 Maya and Adesuwa on the second floor, Neerjah on the third. With COVID-19 still a concern, Adesuwa chose to eat in her room, while Maya ventured down to the dining hall,\u00a0 where she often met up\u00a0 with Neerjah, and both\u00a0 would return to Maya\u00a0 and Adesuwa\u2019s room afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really socially anxious when I came to TCNJ,\u201d says Neerjah. \u201cI tried to compensate by being overly friendly, which took Adesuwa aback.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be like, \u2018Who is this girl, and why does she keep coming to my room?\u2019\u201d says Adesuwa.<\/p>\n
But with some clever mediating from Maya, the pairs quickly merged to form a threesome. \u201cI love both of them,\u201d says Maya. \u201cI wanted all of us to be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three found common ground in their upbringings. \u201cWe all come from immigrant households,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the things that ties us together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya thinks all three being Bonner Scholars helped them to embrace their cultural heritages, even on a predominantly white campus. \u201cIn Bonner, there\u2019s explicit time to reflect on our identities. It lit the match for the three of us to be open and vulnerable with each other,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Soon, the friends were hitting thrift stores together, moving into an apartment in their junior year, cooking Brussels sprouts, and sitting on their living room couch talking for hours.<\/p>\n
It may have been Maya who pulled them together, but now, the best friends take pride in pulling each other up. \u201cThey have created this safe space for me to grow and become better, and I believe I\u2019ve done that for them as well,\u201d says Neerjah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel so privileged to have the friendship that we have,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cThese are the people my kids will refer to as aunties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dynamic duo
\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/h2>\n![\"JP](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-Final_cardoni_Ben_JP24_050_ret-1024x1024.jpg\")
JP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDuring the pandemic, JP tried to rush a fraternity online. \u201cMy dad was in a fraternity, and he\u2019s still friends with many of the brothers,\u201d he says. However, as JP went through the process, he felt it was difficult to make connections and find his place online. So, instead, he started his own fraternity.<\/p>\n
JP knew some upperclassmen who wanted to get a TCNJ chapter of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon off the ground. He recruited his first friend at TCNJ, Ben, to take the reins with him. JP and Ben were both drawn to the organization\u2019s values of love, charity, and esteem, and they liked the service focus of the organization (their main charity is St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital). After two years of paperwork, they officially established TKE on campus. They have grown the chapter to 34 brothers in their time leading it.<\/p>\n
Along the way, JP and Ben became not just brothers, but best friends. They are both New Jersey Devils fans, and enjoy the same music (though JP is \u201ckind of a music snob,\u201d says Ben). And as housemates, they have shared a wall and confirmed TKE was the exact fraternity they needed in order to find their people.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be each other\u2019s best man at our weddings,\u201d they both say.<\/p>\n
A couples calculation
\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/h2>\n![\"AJ](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-Final_cardoni_AJ_Lauren24_169_sm-1024x1024.jpg\")
AJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSocial distancing, masks, and lack of in-person events made dating difficult for the Class of 2024. Lauren and AJ, both math majors, were grateful they shared some courses online. \u201cWe got comfortable seeing each other in our classes and we started talking as friends,\u201d says AJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were adjusting to college-level classes, and computer science, in particular, was really hard,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cWe would FaceTime each other to work together and we\u2019d end up talking about more than just the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also took advantage of the \u201cSpend a Day\u201d event that the college offered their first fall. Students were grouped by major, so AJ and Lauren spent the day on campus, and together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeeting her in person after seeing her online definitely made me more comfortable talking to her,\u201d says AJ. Then they both came to campus spring semester and lived in Wolfe Hall. \u201cTo have someone I was close to just down a couple flights of steps was nice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
They became a couple their sophomore fall and have been together since. \u201cIt was such a weird first year,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cBut once we were adjusted sophomore year, we made that commitment to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming besties
\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/h2>\n![\"Kelsey](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-240428-MAC-192_sm-1024x1024.jpg\")
Kelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen it comes to life after TCNJ, Liz and Kelsey smile big at one possibility: \u201cTeaching in the same school,\u201d says Liz. Considering that Liz majored in special education and Kelsey wants to work in an early childhood classroom, the idea is not far-fetched.<\/p>\n
The women met in Zoom meetings for Best Buddies, a TCNJ club and national organization that encourages friendships between students with and without disabilities. For Kelsey, who was part of the four-year Career and Community Studies certificate program and has an intellectual disability, the club was a way to interact with TCNJ peers outside of her program. \u201cMaking friends has always been a struggle for me,\u201d she says. \u201cBest Buddies made it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a friends-at-first-sight moment when they eventually saw each other in person. \u201cSomeone with red hair came running at me,\u201d says Liz. \u201cWe just hugged and I knew it was going to be a good friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, they\u2019ve bonded over one too many Dunkin\u2019 runs and text strings asking each other for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll definitely have a friendship after TCNJ,\u201d says Kelsey.<\/p>\n
Psyching each other up
\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/h2>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-Final_cardoni_Jazalis_James24_180-1024x1024.jpg\")
James Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJames urged his good friend Jazailis to run for Lion Royalty Homecoming Court last fall. He had already applied himself, but Jazailis was on the fence about it. \u201cIt just made sense to me,\u201d says James. \u201cShe\u2019s friendly, she\u2019s well known across campus. I said, \u2018Girl, you need to apply.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She did. And when she won, she paused, waiting to hear who else would be named a winner. \u201cWhen they said James, I ran to him, and we ended up walking together to get crowned,\u201d she says. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t have been too much of a surprise, though. These two had been encouraging each other and getting involved in many of the same things since they first met in an online psychology class their freshman year. \u201cWe bonded over the fact that we didn\u2019t really know what we were doing in that class,\u201d says Jazailis. \u201cWe\u2019d have individual side chats on Zoom and we\u2019d ask each other,\u00a0 \u2018Does this make sense to you?\u2019 I never felt alone in that class, because James was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once on campus, they seemingly shared parallel lives. They kept bumping into each other at campus events. They both attended a leadership program through the LeaderShape Institute, and they worked in residential education.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were finding ourselves in the same exact spaces without really telling\u00a0 each other we\u2019d be there,\u201d says Jazailis. They both went for a run one morning \u2014\u00a0 \u201cat like 5 a.m.,\u201d says James \u2014 and there the other was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both want to be successful and we\u2019re both really driven,\u201d says Jazailis.\u00a0 \u201cI really admire that about James, and he challenges me in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going the distance
\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/h2>\n![\"Camila](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-Final_cardoni_Ashauna_Camila24_128_sm-1024x1024.jpg\")
Camila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWhenever we are together, we just laugh,\u201d says Ashauna about being pals with Camila. Their friendship, initially sparked by a conversation in a Zoom chat, faced the ultimate test when, as juniors, the two studied abroad on different continents, with an eight- hour time difference between them.<\/p>\n
With Camila in Italy and Ashauna in Chile, they sent each other voice memos over texts, detailing their adventures to each other like personalized podcast episodes. They say no matter where they go next, they will find a way to share their lives with each other. \u201cWe\u2019re past the possibility of this friendship fading,\u201d says Camila.<\/p>\n
From strangers to sisters
\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/h2>\n![\"Katie](\"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1080x1080-cardoni_Slocums24_155-1024x1020.jpg\")
Katie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHoping to find a sense of community, even online, Katie Lutner decided to rush a sorority her freshman year. She learned about the different chapters and met sisters from multiple organizations online. When she got her bid to Delta Phi Epsilon, she was thrilled. \u201cWith them, I felt I could really be true to myself,\u201d she says. Even better: many of the women she was rushing with \u2014 Amanda, Bella, Dharma, and Malica \u2014 became DPhiEs with her and have since become like family. \u201cI had people who would be there for me,\u201d says Katie. \u201cThey shaped who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Write to magazine@tcnj.edu and tell us how you found your people at TCNJ.<\/em><\/p>\nPhotos by Matthew Aaron Callahan, Bill Cardoni, and Caroline Gutman<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our 2024 graduates are on their way out, and they are taking their best pals with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":12686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12660"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12846,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions\/12846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Josh, a civil engineering major, says he feels a \u201cweird, unspoken camaraderie\u201d with the entire Class of 2024 because of how they all started. Case in point: convocation. He recalls eating a quesadilla and watching a screen of blank faces from home \u2014 a far cry from the usual pomp of marching onto Quimby\u2019s Prairie for a \u201cWelcome to TCNJ\u201d presidential address. He went to a virtual involvement fair, too, and signed up for club tennis even though he had no idea how that would work online. Spoiler: it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
From the heart
\nDiana Jacob and Vaidehi Valera<\/h2>\nDiana Jacob and Vaidehi Valera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cShe\u2019s Indian, a bio major, and she sings.\u201d That\u2019s what Diana noticed she had in common with Vaidehi when she first scrolled Vaidehi\u2019s Instagram. Online, and then in person, the two solidified a friendship as they studied for Chem 201, sang Bollywood duets, and served as leaders in the Indian Student Association together. \u201cI was really excited to actually see the people I met online,\u201d says Diana. \u201cEspecially Vaidehi, since we had become so close on text.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to lose touch with\u00a0 my Indian culture in college,\u201d says Vaidehi. \u201cEverything just lined up with the two of us; I knew we\u2019d get along.\u201d<\/p>\n
First impressions; fast friends
\nPaige Babino and Alexa Giacoio<\/h2>\nPaige Babino and Alexa Giacoio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPaige was one of only 1,168 students who returned to campus for the spring semester after an all-online start. But it wasn\u2019t quite what she had hoped. \u201cI ended up going home after two weeks,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was depressing. I was in a dorm alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as summer rolled around and she geared up for her sophomore year, she saw a post on the TCNJ Class of 2024 Facebook group advertising an opening in a Campus Town apartment. Paige dropped a comment that she was interested; Alexa was on the other end.<\/p>\n
Self-admitted overthinkers, the pair say they worried about living with a stranger, meeting each other for the first time as they moved into their new setup in Campus Town.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go with a random roommate, you don\u2019t have expectations,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cIt could be a flop, or it could be something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trip to Target and Starbucks in October of their sophomore year led to an inside joke about Chuck E. Cheese, and the \u201ca-ha\u201d moment they realized their friendship was the real deal.<\/p>\n
Together, TCNJ felt like home. Especially for Paige: \u201cFreshman year, I didn\u2019t want to be there. But sophomore year, I didn\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA random Facebook comment turned into one of the best friendships,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cWe\u2019ve already talked about being in each other\u2019s weddings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya in the middle
\nAdesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/h2>\nAdesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere\u2019s a Latin phrase, omne trium perfectum<\/em>, meaning \u201ceverything that comes in threes is perfect.\u201d That seems to be the case in the friendship between Adesuwa, Maya, and Neerjah. But all three admit it took some work.<\/p>\nIt was Maya who pulled the friendship together. She became friends with Adesuwa and Neerjah, each separately at first. She and Neerjah were from neighboring towns and connected through Instagram. Maya and Adesuwa were applying to some of the same programs, such as the Bonner Community Scholars and Women in Learning and Leadership. Realizing they would be in some organizations together, Maya and Adesuwa planned to be roommates when campus reopened.<\/p>\n
They joke about it now, but Adesuwa and Neerjah got off to a rocky start. They all ended up living in Eickhoff Hall as sophomores \u2014 Maya and Adesuwa on the second floor, Neerjah on the third. With COVID-19 still a concern, Adesuwa chose to eat in her room, while Maya ventured down to the dining hall,\u00a0 where she often met up\u00a0 with Neerjah, and both\u00a0 would return to Maya\u00a0 and Adesuwa\u2019s room afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really socially anxious when I came to TCNJ,\u201d says Neerjah. \u201cI tried to compensate by being overly friendly, which took Adesuwa aback.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be like, \u2018Who is this girl, and why does she keep coming to my room?\u2019\u201d says Adesuwa.<\/p>\n
But with some clever mediating from Maya, the pairs quickly merged to form a threesome. \u201cI love both of them,\u201d says Maya. \u201cI wanted all of us to be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three found common ground in their upbringings. \u201cWe all come from immigrant households,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the things that ties us together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya thinks all three being Bonner Scholars helped them to embrace their cultural heritages, even on a predominantly white campus. \u201cIn Bonner, there\u2019s explicit time to reflect on our identities. It lit the match for the three of us to be open and vulnerable with each other,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Soon, the friends were hitting thrift stores together, moving into an apartment in their junior year, cooking Brussels sprouts, and sitting on their living room couch talking for hours.<\/p>\n
It may have been Maya who pulled them together, but now, the best friends take pride in pulling each other up. \u201cThey have created this safe space for me to grow and become better, and I believe I\u2019ve done that for them as well,\u201d says Neerjah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel so privileged to have the friendship that we have,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cThese are the people my kids will refer to as aunties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dynamic duo
\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/h2>\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDuring the pandemic, JP tried to rush a fraternity online. \u201cMy dad was in a fraternity, and he\u2019s still friends with many of the brothers,\u201d he says. However, as JP went through the process, he felt it was difficult to make connections and find his place online. So, instead, he started his own fraternity.<\/p>\n
JP knew some upperclassmen who wanted to get a TCNJ chapter of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon off the ground. He recruited his first friend at TCNJ, Ben, to take the reins with him. JP and Ben were both drawn to the organization\u2019s values of love, charity, and esteem, and they liked the service focus of the organization (their main charity is St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital). After two years of paperwork, they officially established TKE on campus. They have grown the chapter to 34 brothers in their time leading it.<\/p>\n
Along the way, JP and Ben became not just brothers, but best friends. They are both New Jersey Devils fans, and enjoy the same music (though JP is \u201ckind of a music snob,\u201d says Ben). And as housemates, they have shared a wall and confirmed TKE was the exact fraternity they needed in order to find their people.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be each other\u2019s best man at our weddings,\u201d they both say.<\/p>\n
A couples calculation
\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/h2>\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSocial distancing, masks, and lack of in-person events made dating difficult for the Class of 2024. Lauren and AJ, both math majors, were grateful they shared some courses online. \u201cWe got comfortable seeing each other in our classes and we started talking as friends,\u201d says AJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were adjusting to college-level classes, and computer science, in particular, was really hard,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cWe would FaceTime each other to work together and we\u2019d end up talking about more than just the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also took advantage of the \u201cSpend a Day\u201d event that the college offered their first fall. Students were grouped by major, so AJ and Lauren spent the day on campus, and together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeeting her in person after seeing her online definitely made me more comfortable talking to her,\u201d says AJ. Then they both came to campus spring semester and lived in Wolfe Hall. \u201cTo have someone I was close to just down a couple flights of steps was nice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
They became a couple their sophomore fall and have been together since. \u201cIt was such a weird first year,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cBut once we were adjusted sophomore year, we made that commitment to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming besties
\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/h2>\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen it comes to life after TCNJ, Liz and Kelsey smile big at one possibility: \u201cTeaching in the same school,\u201d says Liz. Considering that Liz majored in special education and Kelsey wants to work in an early childhood classroom, the idea is not far-fetched.<\/p>\n
The women met in Zoom meetings for Best Buddies, a TCNJ club and national organization that encourages friendships between students with and without disabilities. For Kelsey, who was part of the four-year Career and Community Studies certificate program and has an intellectual disability, the club was a way to interact with TCNJ peers outside of her program. \u201cMaking friends has always been a struggle for me,\u201d she says. \u201cBest Buddies made it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a friends-at-first-sight moment when they eventually saw each other in person. \u201cSomeone with red hair came running at me,\u201d says Liz. \u201cWe just hugged and I knew it was going to be a good friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, they\u2019ve bonded over one too many Dunkin\u2019 runs and text strings asking each other for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll definitely have a friendship after TCNJ,\u201d says Kelsey.<\/p>\n
Psyching each other up
\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/h2>\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJames urged his good friend Jazailis to run for Lion Royalty Homecoming Court last fall. He had already applied himself, but Jazailis was on the fence about it. \u201cIt just made sense to me,\u201d says James. \u201cShe\u2019s friendly, she\u2019s well known across campus. I said, \u2018Girl, you need to apply.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She did. And when she won, she paused, waiting to hear who else would be named a winner. \u201cWhen they said James, I ran to him, and we ended up walking together to get crowned,\u201d she says. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t have been too much of a surprise, though. These two had been encouraging each other and getting involved in many of the same things since they first met in an online psychology class their freshman year. \u201cWe bonded over the fact that we didn\u2019t really know what we were doing in that class,\u201d says Jazailis. \u201cWe\u2019d have individual side chats on Zoom and we\u2019d ask each other,\u00a0 \u2018Does this make sense to you?\u2019 I never felt alone in that class, because James was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once on campus, they seemingly shared parallel lives. They kept bumping into each other at campus events. They both attended a leadership program through the LeaderShape Institute, and they worked in residential education.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were finding ourselves in the same exact spaces without really telling\u00a0 each other we\u2019d be there,\u201d says Jazailis. They both went for a run one morning \u2014\u00a0 \u201cat like 5 a.m.,\u201d says James \u2014 and there the other was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both want to be successful and we\u2019re both really driven,\u201d says Jazailis.\u00a0 \u201cI really admire that about James, and he challenges me in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going the distance
\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/h2>\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWhenever we are together, we just laugh,\u201d says Ashauna about being pals with Camila. Their friendship, initially sparked by a conversation in a Zoom chat, faced the ultimate test when, as juniors, the two studied abroad on different continents, with an eight- hour time difference between them.<\/p>\n
With Camila in Italy and Ashauna in Chile, they sent each other voice memos over texts, detailing their adventures to each other like personalized podcast episodes. They say no matter where they go next, they will find a way to share their lives with each other. \u201cWe\u2019re past the possibility of this friendship fading,\u201d says Camila.<\/p>\n
From strangers to sisters
\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/h2>\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHoping to find a sense of community, even online, Katie Lutner decided to rush a sorority her freshman year. She learned about the different chapters and met sisters from multiple organizations online. When she got her bid to Delta Phi Epsilon, she was thrilled. \u201cWith them, I felt I could really be true to myself,\u201d she says. Even better: many of the women she was rushing with \u2014 Amanda, Bella, Dharma, and Malica \u2014 became DPhiEs with her and have since become like family. \u201cI had people who would be there for me,\u201d says Katie. \u201cThey shaped who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Write to magazine@tcnj.edu and tell us how you found your people at TCNJ.<\/em><\/p>\nPhotos by Matthew Aaron Callahan, Bill Cardoni, and Caroline Gutman<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our 2024 graduates are on their way out, and they are taking their best pals with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":12686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12660"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12846,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions\/12846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cShe\u2019s Indian, a bio major, and she sings.\u201d That\u2019s what Diana noticed she had in common with Vaidehi when she first scrolled Vaidehi\u2019s Instagram. Online, and then in person, the two solidified a friendship as they studied for Chem 201, sang Bollywood duets, and served as leaders in the Indian Student Association together. \u201cI was really excited to actually see the people I met online,\u201d says Diana. \u201cEspecially Vaidehi, since we had become so close on text.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to lose touch with\u00a0 my Indian culture in college,\u201d says Vaidehi. \u201cEverything just lined up with the two of us; I knew we\u2019d get along.\u201d<\/p>\n
First impressions; fast friends
\nPaige Babino and Alexa Giacoio<\/h2>\nPaige Babino and Alexa Giacoio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPaige was one of only 1,168 students who returned to campus for the spring semester after an all-online start. But it wasn\u2019t quite what she had hoped. \u201cI ended up going home after two weeks,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was depressing. I was in a dorm alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as summer rolled around and she geared up for her sophomore year, she saw a post on the TCNJ Class of 2024 Facebook group advertising an opening in a Campus Town apartment. Paige dropped a comment that she was interested; Alexa was on the other end.<\/p>\n
Self-admitted overthinkers, the pair say they worried about living with a stranger, meeting each other for the first time as they moved into their new setup in Campus Town.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go with a random roommate, you don\u2019t have expectations,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cIt could be a flop, or it could be something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trip to Target and Starbucks in October of their sophomore year led to an inside joke about Chuck E. Cheese, and the \u201ca-ha\u201d moment they realized their friendship was the real deal.<\/p>\n
Together, TCNJ felt like home. Especially for Paige: \u201cFreshman year, I didn\u2019t want to be there. But sophomore year, I didn\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA random Facebook comment turned into one of the best friendships,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cWe\u2019ve already talked about being in each other\u2019s weddings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya in the middle
\nAdesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/h2>\nAdesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere\u2019s a Latin phrase, omne trium perfectum<\/em>, meaning \u201ceverything that comes in threes is perfect.\u201d That seems to be the case in the friendship between Adesuwa, Maya, and Neerjah. But all three admit it took some work.<\/p>\nIt was Maya who pulled the friendship together. She became friends with Adesuwa and Neerjah, each separately at first. She and Neerjah were from neighboring towns and connected through Instagram. Maya and Adesuwa were applying to some of the same programs, such as the Bonner Community Scholars and Women in Learning and Leadership. Realizing they would be in some organizations together, Maya and Adesuwa planned to be roommates when campus reopened.<\/p>\n
They joke about it now, but Adesuwa and Neerjah got off to a rocky start. They all ended up living in Eickhoff Hall as sophomores \u2014 Maya and Adesuwa on the second floor, Neerjah on the third. With COVID-19 still a concern, Adesuwa chose to eat in her room, while Maya ventured down to the dining hall,\u00a0 where she often met up\u00a0 with Neerjah, and both\u00a0 would return to Maya\u00a0 and Adesuwa\u2019s room afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really socially anxious when I came to TCNJ,\u201d says Neerjah. \u201cI tried to compensate by being overly friendly, which took Adesuwa aback.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be like, \u2018Who is this girl, and why does she keep coming to my room?\u2019\u201d says Adesuwa.<\/p>\n
But with some clever mediating from Maya, the pairs quickly merged to form a threesome. \u201cI love both of them,\u201d says Maya. \u201cI wanted all of us to be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three found common ground in their upbringings. \u201cWe all come from immigrant households,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the things that ties us together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya thinks all three being Bonner Scholars helped them to embrace their cultural heritages, even on a predominantly white campus. \u201cIn Bonner, there\u2019s explicit time to reflect on our identities. It lit the match for the three of us to be open and vulnerable with each other,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Soon, the friends were hitting thrift stores together, moving into an apartment in their junior year, cooking Brussels sprouts, and sitting on their living room couch talking for hours.<\/p>\n
It may have been Maya who pulled them together, but now, the best friends take pride in pulling each other up. \u201cThey have created this safe space for me to grow and become better, and I believe I\u2019ve done that for them as well,\u201d says Neerjah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel so privileged to have the friendship that we have,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cThese are the people my kids will refer to as aunties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dynamic duo
\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/h2>\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDuring the pandemic, JP tried to rush a fraternity online. \u201cMy dad was in a fraternity, and he\u2019s still friends with many of the brothers,\u201d he says. However, as JP went through the process, he felt it was difficult to make connections and find his place online. So, instead, he started his own fraternity.<\/p>\n
JP knew some upperclassmen who wanted to get a TCNJ chapter of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon off the ground. He recruited his first friend at TCNJ, Ben, to take the reins with him. JP and Ben were both drawn to the organization\u2019s values of love, charity, and esteem, and they liked the service focus of the organization (their main charity is St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital). After two years of paperwork, they officially established TKE on campus. They have grown the chapter to 34 brothers in their time leading it.<\/p>\n
Along the way, JP and Ben became not just brothers, but best friends. They are both New Jersey Devils fans, and enjoy the same music (though JP is \u201ckind of a music snob,\u201d says Ben). And as housemates, they have shared a wall and confirmed TKE was the exact fraternity they needed in order to find their people.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be each other\u2019s best man at our weddings,\u201d they both say.<\/p>\n
A couples calculation
\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/h2>\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSocial distancing, masks, and lack of in-person events made dating difficult for the Class of 2024. Lauren and AJ, both math majors, were grateful they shared some courses online. \u201cWe got comfortable seeing each other in our classes and we started talking as friends,\u201d says AJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were adjusting to college-level classes, and computer science, in particular, was really hard,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cWe would FaceTime each other to work together and we\u2019d end up talking about more than just the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also took advantage of the \u201cSpend a Day\u201d event that the college offered their first fall. Students were grouped by major, so AJ and Lauren spent the day on campus, and together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeeting her in person after seeing her online definitely made me more comfortable talking to her,\u201d says AJ. Then they both came to campus spring semester and lived in Wolfe Hall. \u201cTo have someone I was close to just down a couple flights of steps was nice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
They became a couple their sophomore fall and have been together since. \u201cIt was such a weird first year,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cBut once we were adjusted sophomore year, we made that commitment to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming besties
\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/h2>\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen it comes to life after TCNJ, Liz and Kelsey smile big at one possibility: \u201cTeaching in the same school,\u201d says Liz. Considering that Liz majored in special education and Kelsey wants to work in an early childhood classroom, the idea is not far-fetched.<\/p>\n
The women met in Zoom meetings for Best Buddies, a TCNJ club and national organization that encourages friendships between students with and without disabilities. For Kelsey, who was part of the four-year Career and Community Studies certificate program and has an intellectual disability, the club was a way to interact with TCNJ peers outside of her program. \u201cMaking friends has always been a struggle for me,\u201d she says. \u201cBest Buddies made it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a friends-at-first-sight moment when they eventually saw each other in person. \u201cSomeone with red hair came running at me,\u201d says Liz. \u201cWe just hugged and I knew it was going to be a good friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, they\u2019ve bonded over one too many Dunkin\u2019 runs and text strings asking each other for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll definitely have a friendship after TCNJ,\u201d says Kelsey.<\/p>\n
Psyching each other up
\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/h2>\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJames urged his good friend Jazailis to run for Lion Royalty Homecoming Court last fall. He had already applied himself, but Jazailis was on the fence about it. \u201cIt just made sense to me,\u201d says James. \u201cShe\u2019s friendly, she\u2019s well known across campus. I said, \u2018Girl, you need to apply.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She did. And when she won, she paused, waiting to hear who else would be named a winner. \u201cWhen they said James, I ran to him, and we ended up walking together to get crowned,\u201d she says. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t have been too much of a surprise, though. These two had been encouraging each other and getting involved in many of the same things since they first met in an online psychology class their freshman year. \u201cWe bonded over the fact that we didn\u2019t really know what we were doing in that class,\u201d says Jazailis. \u201cWe\u2019d have individual side chats on Zoom and we\u2019d ask each other,\u00a0 \u2018Does this make sense to you?\u2019 I never felt alone in that class, because James was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once on campus, they seemingly shared parallel lives. They kept bumping into each other at campus events. They both attended a leadership program through the LeaderShape Institute, and they worked in residential education.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were finding ourselves in the same exact spaces without really telling\u00a0 each other we\u2019d be there,\u201d says Jazailis. They both went for a run one morning \u2014\u00a0 \u201cat like 5 a.m.,\u201d says James \u2014 and there the other was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both want to be successful and we\u2019re both really driven,\u201d says Jazailis.\u00a0 \u201cI really admire that about James, and he challenges me in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going the distance
\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/h2>\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWhenever we are together, we just laugh,\u201d says Ashauna about being pals with Camila. Their friendship, initially sparked by a conversation in a Zoom chat, faced the ultimate test when, as juniors, the two studied abroad on different continents, with an eight- hour time difference between them.<\/p>\n
With Camila in Italy and Ashauna in Chile, they sent each other voice memos over texts, detailing their adventures to each other like personalized podcast episodes. They say no matter where they go next, they will find a way to share their lives with each other. \u201cWe\u2019re past the possibility of this friendship fading,\u201d says Camila.<\/p>\n
From strangers to sisters
\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/h2>\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHoping to find a sense of community, even online, Katie Lutner decided to rush a sorority her freshman year. She learned about the different chapters and met sisters from multiple organizations online. When she got her bid to Delta Phi Epsilon, she was thrilled. \u201cWith them, I felt I could really be true to myself,\u201d she says. Even better: many of the women she was rushing with \u2014 Amanda, Bella, Dharma, and Malica \u2014 became DPhiEs with her and have since become like family. \u201cI had people who would be there for me,\u201d says Katie. \u201cThey shaped who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Write to magazine@tcnj.edu and tell us how you found your people at TCNJ.<\/em><\/p>\nPhotos by Matthew Aaron Callahan, Bill Cardoni, and Caroline Gutman<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our 2024 graduates are on their way out, and they are taking their best pals with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":12686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12660"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12846,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions\/12846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Paige was one of only 1,168 students who returned to campus for the spring semester after an all-online start. But it wasn\u2019t quite what she had hoped. \u201cI ended up going home after two weeks,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was depressing. I was in a dorm alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as summer rolled around and she geared up for her sophomore year, she saw a post on the TCNJ Class of 2024 Facebook group advertising an opening in a Campus Town apartment. Paige dropped a comment that she was interested; Alexa was on the other end.<\/p>\n
Self-admitted overthinkers, the pair say they worried about living with a stranger, meeting each other for the first time as they moved into their new setup in Campus Town.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go with a random roommate, you don\u2019t have expectations,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cIt could be a flop, or it could be something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trip to Target and Starbucks in October of their sophomore year led to an inside joke about Chuck E. Cheese, and the \u201ca-ha\u201d moment they realized their friendship was the real deal.<\/p>\n
Together, TCNJ felt like home. Especially for Paige: \u201cFreshman year, I didn\u2019t want to be there. But sophomore year, I didn\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA random Facebook comment turned into one of the best friendships,\u201d says Alexa. \u201cWe\u2019ve already talked about being in each other\u2019s weddings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya in the middle
\nAdesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/h2>\nAdesuwa Osemwegie, Maya Sharpe, and Neerjah Upreti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThere\u2019s a Latin phrase, omne trium perfectum<\/em>, meaning \u201ceverything that comes in threes is perfect.\u201d That seems to be the case in the friendship between Adesuwa, Maya, and Neerjah. But all three admit it took some work.<\/p>\nIt was Maya who pulled the friendship together. She became friends with Adesuwa and Neerjah, each separately at first. She and Neerjah were from neighboring towns and connected through Instagram. Maya and Adesuwa were applying to some of the same programs, such as the Bonner Community Scholars and Women in Learning and Leadership. Realizing they would be in some organizations together, Maya and Adesuwa planned to be roommates when campus reopened.<\/p>\n
They joke about it now, but Adesuwa and Neerjah got off to a rocky start. They all ended up living in Eickhoff Hall as sophomores \u2014 Maya and Adesuwa on the second floor, Neerjah on the third. With COVID-19 still a concern, Adesuwa chose to eat in her room, while Maya ventured down to the dining hall,\u00a0 where she often met up\u00a0 with Neerjah, and both\u00a0 would return to Maya\u00a0 and Adesuwa\u2019s room afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really socially anxious when I came to TCNJ,\u201d says Neerjah. \u201cI tried to compensate by being overly friendly, which took Adesuwa aback.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be like, \u2018Who is this girl, and why does she keep coming to my room?\u2019\u201d says Adesuwa.<\/p>\n
But with some clever mediating from Maya, the pairs quickly merged to form a threesome. \u201cI love both of them,\u201d says Maya. \u201cI wanted all of us to be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three found common ground in their upbringings. \u201cWe all come from immigrant households,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the things that ties us together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya thinks all three being Bonner Scholars helped them to embrace their cultural heritages, even on a predominantly white campus. \u201cIn Bonner, there\u2019s explicit time to reflect on our identities. It lit the match for the three of us to be open and vulnerable with each other,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Soon, the friends were hitting thrift stores together, moving into an apartment in their junior year, cooking Brussels sprouts, and sitting on their living room couch talking for hours.<\/p>\n
It may have been Maya who pulled them together, but now, the best friends take pride in pulling each other up. \u201cThey have created this safe space for me to grow and become better, and I believe I\u2019ve done that for them as well,\u201d says Neerjah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel so privileged to have the friendship that we have,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cThese are the people my kids will refer to as aunties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dynamic duo
\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/h2>\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDuring the pandemic, JP tried to rush a fraternity online. \u201cMy dad was in a fraternity, and he\u2019s still friends with many of the brothers,\u201d he says. However, as JP went through the process, he felt it was difficult to make connections and find his place online. So, instead, he started his own fraternity.<\/p>\n
JP knew some upperclassmen who wanted to get a TCNJ chapter of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon off the ground. He recruited his first friend at TCNJ, Ben, to take the reins with him. JP and Ben were both drawn to the organization\u2019s values of love, charity, and esteem, and they liked the service focus of the organization (their main charity is St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital). After two years of paperwork, they officially established TKE on campus. They have grown the chapter to 34 brothers in their time leading it.<\/p>\n
Along the way, JP and Ben became not just brothers, but best friends. They are both New Jersey Devils fans, and enjoy the same music (though JP is \u201ckind of a music snob,\u201d says Ben). And as housemates, they have shared a wall and confirmed TKE was the exact fraternity they needed in order to find their people.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be each other\u2019s best man at our weddings,\u201d they both say.<\/p>\n
A couples calculation
\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/h2>\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSocial distancing, masks, and lack of in-person events made dating difficult for the Class of 2024. Lauren and AJ, both math majors, were grateful they shared some courses online. \u201cWe got comfortable seeing each other in our classes and we started talking as friends,\u201d says AJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were adjusting to college-level classes, and computer science, in particular, was really hard,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cWe would FaceTime each other to work together and we\u2019d end up talking about more than just the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also took advantage of the \u201cSpend a Day\u201d event that the college offered their first fall. Students were grouped by major, so AJ and Lauren spent the day on campus, and together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeeting her in person after seeing her online definitely made me more comfortable talking to her,\u201d says AJ. Then they both came to campus spring semester and lived in Wolfe Hall. \u201cTo have someone I was close to just down a couple flights of steps was nice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
They became a couple their sophomore fall and have been together since. \u201cIt was such a weird first year,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cBut once we were adjusted sophomore year, we made that commitment to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becoming besties
\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/h2>\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen it comes to life after TCNJ, Liz and Kelsey smile big at one possibility: \u201cTeaching in the same school,\u201d says Liz. Considering that Liz majored in special education and Kelsey wants to work in an early childhood classroom, the idea is not far-fetched.<\/p>\n
The women met in Zoom meetings for Best Buddies, a TCNJ club and national organization that encourages friendships between students with and without disabilities. For Kelsey, who was part of the four-year Career and Community Studies certificate program and has an intellectual disability, the club was a way to interact with TCNJ peers outside of her program. \u201cMaking friends has always been a struggle for me,\u201d she says. \u201cBest Buddies made it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a friends-at-first-sight moment when they eventually saw each other in person. \u201cSomeone with red hair came running at me,\u201d says Liz. \u201cWe just hugged and I knew it was going to be a good friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, they\u2019ve bonded over one too many Dunkin\u2019 runs and text strings asking each other for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll definitely have a friendship after TCNJ,\u201d says Kelsey.<\/p>\n
Psyching each other up
\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/h2>\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJames urged his good friend Jazailis to run for Lion Royalty Homecoming Court last fall. He had already applied himself, but Jazailis was on the fence about it. \u201cIt just made sense to me,\u201d says James. \u201cShe\u2019s friendly, she\u2019s well known across campus. I said, \u2018Girl, you need to apply.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She did. And when she won, she paused, waiting to hear who else would be named a winner. \u201cWhen they said James, I ran to him, and we ended up walking together to get crowned,\u201d she says. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t have been too much of a surprise, though. These two had been encouraging each other and getting involved in many of the same things since they first met in an online psychology class their freshman year. \u201cWe bonded over the fact that we didn\u2019t really know what we were doing in that class,\u201d says Jazailis. \u201cWe\u2019d have individual side chats on Zoom and we\u2019d ask each other,\u00a0 \u2018Does this make sense to you?\u2019 I never felt alone in that class, because James was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once on campus, they seemingly shared parallel lives. They kept bumping into each other at campus events. They both attended a leadership program through the LeaderShape Institute, and they worked in residential education.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were finding ourselves in the same exact spaces without really telling\u00a0 each other we\u2019d be there,\u201d says Jazailis. They both went for a run one morning \u2014\u00a0 \u201cat like 5 a.m.,\u201d says James \u2014 and there the other was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both want to be successful and we\u2019re both really driven,\u201d says Jazailis.\u00a0 \u201cI really admire that about James, and he challenges me in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going the distance
\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/h2>\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWhenever we are together, we just laugh,\u201d says Ashauna about being pals with Camila. Their friendship, initially sparked by a conversation in a Zoom chat, faced the ultimate test when, as juniors, the two studied abroad on different continents, with an eight- hour time difference between them.<\/p>\n
With Camila in Italy and Ashauna in Chile, they sent each other voice memos over texts, detailing their adventures to each other like personalized podcast episodes. They say no matter where they go next, they will find a way to share their lives with each other. \u201cWe\u2019re past the possibility of this friendship fading,\u201d says Camila.<\/p>\n
From strangers to sisters
\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/h2>\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHoping to find a sense of community, even online, Katie Lutner decided to rush a sorority her freshman year. She learned about the different chapters and met sisters from multiple organizations online. When she got her bid to Delta Phi Epsilon, she was thrilled. \u201cWith them, I felt I could really be true to myself,\u201d she says. Even better: many of the women she was rushing with \u2014 Amanda, Bella, Dharma, and Malica \u2014 became DPhiEs with her and have since become like family. \u201cI had people who would be there for me,\u201d says Katie. \u201cThey shaped who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Write to magazine@tcnj.edu and tell us how you found your people at TCNJ.<\/em><\/p>\nPhotos by Matthew Aaron Callahan, Bill Cardoni, and Caroline Gutman<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our 2024 graduates are on their way out, and they are taking their best pals with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":12686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12660"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12846,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions\/12846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
There\u2019s a Latin phrase, omne trium perfectum<\/em>, meaning \u201ceverything that comes in threes is perfect.\u201d That seems to be the case in the friendship between Adesuwa, Maya, and Neerjah. But all three admit it took some work.<\/p>\n It was Maya who pulled the friendship together. She became friends with Adesuwa and Neerjah, each separately at first. She and Neerjah were from neighboring towns and connected through Instagram. Maya and Adesuwa were applying to some of the same programs, such as the Bonner Community Scholars and Women in Learning and Leadership. Realizing they would be in some organizations together, Maya and Adesuwa planned to be roommates when campus reopened.<\/p>\n They joke about it now, but Adesuwa and Neerjah got off to a rocky start. They all ended up living in Eickhoff Hall as sophomores \u2014 Maya and Adesuwa on the second floor, Neerjah on the third. With COVID-19 still a concern, Adesuwa chose to eat in her room, while Maya ventured down to the dining hall,\u00a0 where she often met up\u00a0 with Neerjah, and both\u00a0 would return to Maya\u00a0 and Adesuwa\u2019s room afterward.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really socially anxious when I came to TCNJ,\u201d says Neerjah. \u201cI tried to compensate by being overly friendly, which took Adesuwa aback.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would be like, \u2018Who is this girl, and why does she keep coming to my room?\u2019\u201d says Adesuwa.<\/p>\n But with some clever mediating from Maya, the pairs quickly merged to form a threesome. \u201cI love both of them,\u201d says Maya. \u201cI wanted all of us to be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n The three found common ground in their upbringings. \u201cWe all come from immigrant households,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cAnd that\u2019s one of the things that ties us together.\u201d<\/p>\n Maya thinks all three being Bonner Scholars helped them to embrace their cultural heritages, even on a predominantly white campus. \u201cIn Bonner, there\u2019s explicit time to reflect on our identities. It lit the match for the three of us to be open and vulnerable with each other,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Soon, the friends were hitting thrift stores together, moving into an apartment in their junior year, cooking Brussels sprouts, and sitting on their living room couch talking for hours.<\/p>\n It may have been Maya who pulled them together, but now, the best friends take pride in pulling each other up. \u201cThey have created this safe space for me to grow and become better, and I believe I\u2019ve done that for them as well,\u201d says Neerjah.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel so privileged to have the friendship that we have,\u201d says Adesuwa. \u201cThese are the people my kids will refer to as aunties.\u201d<\/p>\n During the pandemic, JP tried to rush a fraternity online. \u201cMy dad was in a fraternity, and he\u2019s still friends with many of the brothers,\u201d he says. However, as JP went through the process, he felt it was difficult to make connections and find his place online. So, instead, he started his own fraternity.<\/p>\n JP knew some upperclassmen who wanted to get a TCNJ chapter of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon off the ground. He recruited his first friend at TCNJ, Ben, to take the reins with him. JP and Ben were both drawn to the organization\u2019s values of love, charity, and esteem, and they liked the service focus of the organization (their main charity is St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital). After two years of paperwork, they officially established TKE on campus. They have grown the chapter to 34 brothers in their time leading it.<\/p>\n Along the way, JP and Ben became not just brothers, but best friends. They are both New Jersey Devils fans, and enjoy the same music (though JP is \u201ckind of a music snob,\u201d says Ben). And as housemates, they have shared a wall and confirmed TKE was the exact fraternity they needed in order to find their people.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be each other\u2019s best man at our weddings,\u201d they both say.<\/p>\n Social distancing, masks, and lack of in-person events made dating difficult for the Class of 2024. Lauren and AJ, both math majors, were grateful they shared some courses online. \u201cWe got comfortable seeing each other in our classes and we started talking as friends,\u201d says AJ.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were adjusting to college-level classes, and computer science, in particular, was really hard,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cWe would FaceTime each other to work together and we\u2019d end up talking about more than just the project.\u201d<\/p>\n They also took advantage of the \u201cSpend a Day\u201d event that the college offered their first fall. Students were grouped by major, so AJ and Lauren spent the day on campus, and together.<\/p>\n \u201cMeeting her in person after seeing her online definitely made me more comfortable talking to her,\u201d says AJ. Then they both came to campus spring semester and lived in Wolfe Hall. \u201cTo have someone I was close to just down a couple flights of steps was nice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n They became a couple their sophomore fall and have been together since. \u201cIt was such a weird first year,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cBut once we were adjusted sophomore year, we made that commitment to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to life after TCNJ, Liz and Kelsey smile big at one possibility: \u201cTeaching in the same school,\u201d says Liz. Considering that Liz majored in special education and Kelsey wants to work in an early childhood classroom, the idea is not far-fetched.<\/p>\n The women met in Zoom meetings for Best Buddies, a TCNJ club and national organization that encourages friendships between students with and without disabilities. For Kelsey, who was part of the four-year Career and Community Studies certificate program and has an intellectual disability, the club was a way to interact with TCNJ peers outside of her program. \u201cMaking friends has always been a struggle for me,\u201d she says. \u201cBest Buddies made it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a friends-at-first-sight moment when they eventually saw each other in person. \u201cSomeone with red hair came running at me,\u201d says Liz. \u201cWe just hugged and I knew it was going to be a good friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, they\u2019ve bonded over one too many Dunkin\u2019 runs and text strings asking each other for advice.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll definitely have a friendship after TCNJ,\u201d says Kelsey.<\/p>\n James urged his good friend Jazailis to run for Lion Royalty Homecoming Court last fall. He had already applied himself, but Jazailis was on the fence about it. \u201cIt just made sense to me,\u201d says James. \u201cShe\u2019s friendly, she\u2019s well known across campus. I said, \u2018Girl, you need to apply.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She did. And when she won, she paused, waiting to hear who else would be named a winner. \u201cWhen they said James, I ran to him, and we ended up walking together to get crowned,\u201d she says. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n It shouldn\u2019t have been too much of a surprise, though. These two had been encouraging each other and getting involved in many of the same things since they first met in an online psychology class their freshman year. \u201cWe bonded over the fact that we didn\u2019t really know what we were doing in that class,\u201d says Jazailis. \u201cWe\u2019d have individual side chats on Zoom and we\u2019d ask each other,\u00a0 \u2018Does this make sense to you?\u2019 I never felt alone in that class, because James was there.\u201d<\/p>\n Once on campus, they seemingly shared parallel lives. They kept bumping into each other at campus events. They both attended a leadership program through the LeaderShape Institute, and they worked in residential education.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were finding ourselves in the same exact spaces without really telling\u00a0 each other we\u2019d be there,\u201d says Jazailis. They both went for a run one morning \u2014\u00a0 \u201cat like 5 a.m.,\u201d says James \u2014 and there the other was.<\/p>\n \u201cWe both want to be successful and we\u2019re both really driven,\u201d says Jazailis.\u00a0 \u201cI really admire that about James, and he challenges me in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever we are together, we just laugh,\u201d says Ashauna about being pals with Camila. Their friendship, initially sparked by a conversation in a Zoom chat, faced the ultimate test when, as juniors, the two studied abroad on different continents, with an eight- hour time difference between them.<\/p>\n With Camila in Italy and Ashauna in Chile, they sent each other voice memos over texts, detailing their adventures to each other like personalized podcast episodes. They say no matter where they go next, they will find a way to share their lives with each other. \u201cWe\u2019re past the possibility of this friendship fading,\u201d says Camila.<\/p>\n Hoping to find a sense of community, even online, Katie Lutner decided to rush a sorority her freshman year. She learned about the different chapters and met sisters from multiple organizations online. When she got her bid to Delta Phi Epsilon, she was thrilled. \u201cWith them, I felt I could really be true to myself,\u201d she says. Even better: many of the women she was rushing with \u2014 Amanda, Bella, Dharma, and Malica \u2014 became DPhiEs with her and have since become like family. \u201cI had people who would be there for me,\u201d says Katie. \u201cThey shaped who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n Write to magazine@tcnj.edu and tell us how you found your people at TCNJ.<\/em><\/p>\n Photos by Matthew Aaron Callahan, Bill Cardoni, and Caroline Gutman<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our 2024 graduates are on their way out, and they are taking their best pals with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":12686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12660"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12846,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions\/12846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Dynamic duo
\nJP Egan and Ben Rogoff<\/h2>\nA couples calculation
\nAJ Tortoriello and Lauren Bayzath<\/h2>\nBecoming besties
\nKelsey Heaney and Liz Mancini<\/h2>\nPsyching each other up
\nJames Chiriboga and Jazailis Gual<\/h2>\nGoing the distance
\nCamila Guayasamin and Ashauna Francis<\/h2>\nFrom strangers to sisters
\nKatie Lutner, Bella La Fata, Dharma Mowatt, Amanda Brogan, and Malica Hot<\/h2>\n