Straight from State & Regionals: Love blossoms at MSACROA Conference

In November 2007, a registrar and an enrollment specialist met at a conference in Atlantic City”a.k.a. Romantic City.

OK... maybe it's not officially the city of romance”but, on one fateful night, sharing a computer at a professional meeting, love blossomed for two young academic professionals”and together they embarked on a relationship that spanned the eastern seaboard, deepened through remarkable coincidences, and welcomed to the world a beloved baby”3 ½-month-old Ryleigh Lynn, no doubt a future registrar herself.

Michael Maysilles and his wife, Ali, met at a MSACROA conference a few years ago,┬" said Thomas Mantoni, president of the Middle States Association of Collegiate Registrars and Officers of Admission (MSACROA). Love bloomed and they now share their world with a beautiful daughter!┬"

 A night to remember

Michael was working as a registrar at Gettysburg College in November 2007 when he had a chance meeting with his future wife Ali, who was attending her very first professional conference as an enrollment specialist with Union County College.

I was new to the region. It was my first MSACROA conference and I didn't really know a lot of people,┬" Michael recalled. I had just started at Gettysburg.┬"

Here was this guy wearing a bright orange shirt (to represent Gettysburg)”he had a computer, and I needed one,┬" Ali remembered. So I asked if I could use it for a minute to check my email.┬"

We talked that day. We flirted that night, but that was all,┬" she said. We exchanged business cards and parted as friends.┬"

Little coincidences

Their institutions were over three hours apart, so the flirtation developed slowly over the next few months, through email.

I'd ask him what there was to do around Gettysburg, dropping hints, but he wasn't really picking up on them,┬" Ali said. They also talked about their newborn nephews, who serendipitously, were born within two days of one another in February 2008.

Then I asked him if he was going to the [2008] AACRAO Annual Meeting in Orlando,┬" Ali said.

I was,┬" Michael said. So we made plans to meet up.┬"

In fact, their first date”though we didn't call it a date,┬" said Ali”was at Universal Studios in Orlando, where they braved the Dueling Dragons roller coaster.

When we got off the ride, I was turning green,┬" Ali said. Though their first date didn't end... romantically, the two saw through the roller-coaster induced nausea with rose-colored glasses. They spent more time together at the conference, and, when they returned to the northeast, they were decidedly dating.

We began a long-distance relationship”talking on the phone for hours at a time, seeing each other at least once a month,┬" Michael said. By the MSACROA conference the next November, we were both wondering where the relationship was going to go.┬"

At that second MSACROA meeting, the couple had a heart-to-heart conversation, Michael said. They both wanted the relationship to grow, but didn't know how to make it happen.

Then, one time when he was visiting me, we saw a job opening at Caldwell College for a registrar”only about 20 minutes from where I was living at the time,┬" Ali said. So we decided he had to apply for it.┬"  

Interestingly, Caldwell College is a Dominican institution, and, at the time he applied, Michael's cousin was about to take her final vows to become a Dominican nun. Just another little odd connection in a string of unexpected things like that,┬" Ali said.

Of course, Michael was hired. And in July 2009, he began his new job in New Jersey.

He proposed to Ali on Oct. 10, 2009. Upon sharing the news of their engagement with his mother, he learned that was the exact date his father had proposed to her in 1969”unbeknownst to Michael.

My father passed away in 1991, so it was a very special connection to have to him,┬" Michael said. And it was something I hadn't planned at all.┬"

In July 2010, Ali moved to her current position as Transfer Evaluator at New Jersey City University. And in November that same year, the couple was married.