Posted April 08, 2026 in Alumni Profile
We caught up with 2018 grads Evan and Meg to chat about their incredible journey from Lawrence friends to newlyweds! They opened up about their favorite Lawrence memories, how they navigated long distance during their college years, and why the bond they formed on our campus was the perfect foundation for their future together.
What was your first impression of one another in the hallways or classrooms?
Evan: Well, we both grew up in Shaker Heights and, in our Lawrence classes, there were quite a few people from Shaker. We actually ran a carpool together. Our first time meeting was at a little event we had right before the school year started, to get to know each other for the carpool’s sake. We also ran cross country together at the time.
Meg: Yep, we were co-captains our senior year.
What were you two like in high school? Did you have vastly different experiences? Was one the more studious one, or one more of a social butterfly?
Meg: Yeah, I was involved in theater, student council—pretty much every group there was on campus, I was involved in.
Evan: I was definitely more of a...
Meg: Studious.
Evan: A try-hard academic. The only things I did outside of classes were bowling club and cross country.
Meg: I never had friends before Lawrence, so I definitely enjoyed a social life to the fullest. I had friends and everything that I hadn’t been able to have during other times of my life.
Evan: I had a really good group of friends. There were a good five or six of us, and we’re still all friends now.
Did you date in high school?
Meg: No, we didn’t date at all. We were really good friends. We didn’t start dating until 2019 when we were sophomores in college.
Who was the first one to realize that there might be something more than a classmate connection?
Meg: Definitely me. 100%. I always thought Evan was cute, kind, and intelligent. We were just friends in high school, but I distinctly remember telling my other friends who were complaining about guys, “Well, there's Evan. He’s good. He’s nice!”
Evan: I was completely oblivious in high school. Honestly, completely oblivious. But we always had a good friendship, and Meg was always a very caring person. Once we started talking more after high school, that is what drew me to her.
Where did you go to college?
Meg: I went to Cleveland State, and Evan went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts.
What were those early days of dating like, especially with the challenge of being long distance?
Evan: We started dating right before that winter break in 2019. We were long distance for at least the first couple of months until COVID hit. Since it hit during the end of our sophomore year, I was back in town for quite a while until the next school year started in August. We got to spend a lot of time together during that period—as much as you could at the time. But afterwards, we had a long-distance relationship for a little over two years. After our senior year of college, I moved back to the Cleveland area.
Meg: And then about a year after that, we got engaged! I think the whole foundation of our relationship was possible because of our friendship.
When and where did you get married?
Evan: We got married in February of last year (2025). We got engaged a little over a year beforehand, in January of 2024.
Meg: We got married in Cleveland at the Music Box Supper Club. We had lots of Lawrence alumni there, and we even had Mr. Ising there.
What were some of your favorite memories from Lawrence during your time there?
Meg: I loved the musicals and the theater program. That was really special to me because I could not sing or dance at all—it never got any better—but I was always given roles that were either non-singing or were adapted to my skill set. Then, cross country was great, and the teachers were really wonderful, especially the science and math teachers. Math was my biggest struggle, so being able to take a physics course, algebra, and trigonometry and actually pass was phenomenal for me. I have dyscalculia, dyslexia, and ADHD.
Evan: My favorite memories definitely stem from the relationships with the teachers. Bowling Club was also a lot of fun; a good portion of my friend group always did that. And, of course, cross country. I did it all four years, and many of my really good friends today are still the guys I ran cross country with.
Meg: When Evan first started at Lawrence, he was very quiet. The advisory he was put in was Lawrence News, which was video-recorded. Most of us would not hear him speak very often, but then he was on Lawrence News and it was great. He had long hair then, too—it was so funny.
Another thing I loved was Mr. Starner’s social peers class. Learning how to socialize was very important to me and gave me tools I still utilize. Also, the self-advocacy that Lawrence empowered us with was incredible. Evan was valedictorian, and I was the senior student speaker.
Talk about what you got your degrees in and what you’re doing now.
Evan: I went to WPI for my undergraduate and graduate studies, where I earned both my Bachelor’s and my Master’s in Mechanical Engineering. In college, I interned at a company here in Cleveland called Swagelok. I interned there between my junior and senior years and got a job offer at the end of that internship. The first three years out of college, I went through their Career Development Program, where they moved us around to very different roles.
I worked at a manufacturing facility for high-purity valves, then moved into a welding engineering side, and finally a custom solutions role where I actually got to redesign a whole helium system at one of our plants. Now, I’m in a permanent engineering role with the high-purity manufacturing group. I work with laser welding specifically; the parts we manufacture go into semiconductor manufacturing.
Meg: I got my degree in Gender and Sexuality Studies. After college, I did lactation consulting education, so I am a lactation consultant specialist. Currently—and hopefully for a very long time—I am a Montessori preschool teacher. My next step is to do the official Montessori training to become a certified teacher.
How do you feel Lawrence prepared you for the academic and social environment of college?
Evan: I tailored myself to a STEM program, so I was focused on math and sciences. I was a little bit ahead in math and took college classes at Kent State during my senior year. One thing that helped me more than any STEM class was a CCP (College Credit Plus) writing class I took my junior year with a phenomenal teacher from Tri-C.
I’ve been very dyslexic since kindergarten, and writing has always been a huge struggle. That class was very challenging, but the benefit was great. It got me out of my comfort zone. It was still a large jump going off to college in Massachusetts—I felt like I was learning material for the first time while other kids were just revisiting it—but the project-based curriculum at WPI was beneficial to how I learn.
Meg: Giving me confidence in my academic abilities was a big thing. I always felt like I would not be able to go to college. Lawrence also helped me with time management and organization. When I came to Lawrence, my backpack and folders were like endless pits; I would lose homework constantly. I still struggle with executive functioning, but Lawrence helped me so much. In college, I was able to advocate for myself and get the assistance I needed to succeed. Since my degree was mostly reading and writing-based, having the freedom to learn how to edit and do citations really helped.
What advice would you give to students who learn differently?
Meg: Find a topic that you’re passionate about. For me, it was women’s health and community outreach. I thrived in college because I was so passionate about what I was learning. Learning is fun if you’re learning about something you like.
Evan: I agree tenfold. Dyslexia is one of the more interesting learning differences. People usually focus on the negative side—the challenge of reading and writing—but there are a lot of benefits. I think very differently from most people. I would recommend that people lean into the strengths of their learning differences. I was always very strong at pattern recognition, especially in math and science. Focus on the benefits, too.
Meg: I would also recommend building a community and nurturing connections. You don’t know where those connections will lead you. Mine led me to a marriage and Evan’s led him to many lifelong friends.
Looking back at your old yearbooks, who has evolved the most since graduation?
Meg: Well, real quick—we were both voted "Most Likely to Succeed." We tied!
Evan: Looking between us? Probably you. I think we’ve both grown a lot, but in different ways. Mine was definitely on the social side post-Lawrence.
Meg: And you have to mention your side gig! Evan is a professional disc golfer. He plays tournaments all over the state, and he’s ranked.
Evan: That is correct. I actually played disc golf maybe once before Lawrence, but I remember we had it in our freshman year gym class with Mr. Thompson. That got me back into it. In my junior year, a buddy and I actually made multiple courses on the Lawrence property. I’d bring a basket to school in my car and after school we’d go put it in the Lawrence woods because we knew them so well from cross country. I eventually started the club at my college and we went on to take eighth place in the nation for Division 1.
Who had the cleaner locker at Lawrence?
Evan: Me, easily. Not even close. I am a very organized person. Meg is not.
Meg: It’s very true. My stuff would always spill out. It got to a point where a teacher would have to say, "Okay, we're going through your locker today."
If you had to describe each other’s high school persona in just three words, what would they be?
Evan: Meg would be outgoing, engaged, and caring.
Meg: Evan’s would be intelligent, loyal, and motivated.
You’re living in Shaker Heights now. What do you like to do in your free time to unwind?
Meg: We have two cats, Momo and Milo. We spend a lot of time with our families and friends. I love to bike—I actually worked in a bike shop all through high school—and I love to swim.
Evan: We do a good amount of biking through the Shaker Lakes. My parents live down in Vermilion near the beach, so we spend a lot of time on the water in the summer.