Celebrating alumni love stories

Lindsay (BA’11) and Daniel Olver (BA’11, MPA’22)

Between 2006-2011 my now-husband Daniel Olver and I were Huskie student-athletes in wrestling. Rumour has it that SFU tried recruiting him but his girl and loyalty to the green and white kept him home. We both used all five years of eligibility and got married at the end of our fourth year. In our fifth year, we were both captains of the Huskie wrestling team together.   
  
The StarPhoenix wrote an article about us, "To have and to hold," featuring a photo of me carrying him on my shoulders, which now sits in his office.   
  
After our coach, Todd Hinds, passed away, Daniel took an interim position as head coach, and he's been there since.   
  
Our son is a CanWest baby, born during championship season. It's where his first birthday was celebrated since it was our host year. Now, 12 years later, CanWest falls on our son's birthday again and he's looking forward to spending it cheering for his Huskie family.   
  
The threads of green and white are tightly woven through the family we've created. Our three kids have been raised on the Huskie wrestling mats and attending various other sporting events. They have had the privilege of receiving the rare opportunity to grow up alongside individuals pursuing both academic and athletic excellence, witnessing perseverance and teamwork.   
  
Our years with the program have not only shaped us as individuals but as a couple and has given us so much as a family.   
  
-Lindsay Olver 

Mahzad Pourmand (MA’24) and Moein Hasani (MSc’24) 

Moein and I met at USask. We were both from Iran, but from opposite sides of the country—740 miles apart! We probably never would have met back home, but life had other plans. We both immigrated in 2021, and being so far from our families, we quickly became everything to each other. We supported one another through all the ups and downs and finished our master’s with amazing achievements. But Saskatoon and USask gave us more than just a degree—we found love and friendships that’ll last a lifetime. We got married in June 2024, and we’re forever grateful for this beautiful journey and our little love story! 

-Mahzad Pourmand  

Michael (BA’11, BEd’14, MEd’21) and Stacey (BEd’14, MEd’21) Crowe 

My wife Stacey and I met in the College of Education back in the fall of 2012. Our cohort was very close and, in spending so much time together for the first year of education, Stacey and I became really good friends.   

Over the next few years, our friendship turned into a relationship. Together we got our Bachelor of Education in 2014 and Master of Education in 2022. We were married in 2019, welcomed our first child in 2020 and our second in 2022. We are both teachers in Saskatoon, and every day we are best friends!  

-Michael Crowe  

Darcy (BMus’08) and Samuel Hildebrandt  

It all began with a travel bug bequeathed by my parents. Growing up as a homeschooling family in a small Prairie town, we had the freedom to travel a lot. Every year we took at least one long road trip, and, over the years, I discovered all corners of Canada, most of my dad’s home country, the U.S.A., and even parts of Mexico. As soon as I was old enough, I went on my first overseas trip to England and later to Italy and Greece. My wanderlust was strong. And so, I thought perhaps a foreign partner would be an exciting part of my future.   

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to learn Italian and move to Italy. I looked forward to studying the language when I got to university. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that USask didn't offer Italian language classes! As a musician and the daughter of a Mennonite woman, I concluded that German would be the next-best thing. So, I began to learn the language. In my second year, a new exchange student was our tutorial leader. Samuel was on exchange from Oldenburg, Germany, to improve his English as part of his pedagogy degree in English and music. From the first day I was smitten.   

After finding out that he was also a musician, I invited him to a jazz concert in the Music Department and so began our friendship. We slowly got to know each other, but in the second term we both took the same class: Jazz Improv. It would prove to be one of the hardest classes I ever took, partly because I have a classical music background and am rubbish at improvisation and partly because I was distracted by this cute German for the entirety of the class.   

Well, over dates at Tim Hortons, attempts at curling, and walks by the river, we fell in love. He had to return to Germany at the end of the school year to finish his degree, but at Christmas he returned to Canada and proposed to me near the bandstand by the Bessborough while kneeling in the snow at -25 C! We were married the next summer in Saskatoon.   

After spending some years in Saskatchewan, where our daughter was born, we moved to Scotland where Samuel completed a PhD and where our son was later born. Then a few years were spent back in Saskatoon before we moved to Didsbury, Manchester, U.K. We don't know how long we'll be here, but it's a lovely middle ground between Germany and Canada. The wanderlust is still strong, and we travel as much as we can here in the U.K. and in Europe. But after that chance meeting nearly 17 years ago, I'm sure glad that I learned German and not Italian!  

-Darcy Hildebrandt (née Piguet) 

Jenn Pereira (BA’01, LLB’03) and Kurt Soucy (BE’00)  

"Most U of S" how-we-met story, ever.  

He first saw me dancing at a Local Rabbits show at Louis’ in the summer of ’98, but I was utterly oblivious to his existence. Our paths crossed again when he signed my petition for SMART (Students Mad About Rising Tuition) in the tunnel. I definitely noticed him that time—but, as a woman of integrity, I would never breach his confidentiality by, say, taking his phone number. Fortunately, fate (or perhaps a deep dive into the USask email directory) intervened.  

After we locked eyes at a Sloan concert at upper MUB, he did the most romantic thing a 1999 engineering student could: he found out my name and looked me up in the USASK system. He sent a message titled “Consider this an introduction.” It worked. Our first date was lunch in the Biology Building, and from there, we built a life together—a few USask degrees between us, a home in Saskatoon, careers, and a family. Twenty-five years later, we still believe in love, good music, and the magic of well-timed emails.  

-Jenn Pereira  

Lindsay (BSA'88) and Mark (BSA'88) Folk  

We met living at St. Andrew’s College as well as being Agro classmates. This Valentine’s Day marks 40 years since our first date, attending the “Elixer” cabaret. We have been married for 35 years. It all started at U of S.  

-Lindsay Folk

Curby (BSA’67, MSc’74) and Bernadette Klaibert (BSHEc’69, BEd’72) 

The most important and profound event of my life took place 59 years ago at the U of S 1965 summer school when I met and fell very deeply in love with the most beautiful first-year student, Bernadette Kress. We were married on July 5, 1969, and celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary in 2024.  

On July 5, we will be celebrating our 56th wedding anniversary. We both clearly and very fondly remember the first time I asked Bernadette for a date on the steps of the Thorvaldson Building.  

-Curby Klaibert 

Hertha (BEd’74) and Harvey (BE’74) Rose 

Harvey and I met during our second year at university on September 11, 1971, at a house party hosted by individuals Harvey knew through 4-H, who happened to be my neighbours who I went to school with.   

We were married on October 7, 1972, while we were in our third year of university--Harvey in the College of Civil Engineering and me in education. Right after graduating in 1974, we moved to Calgary to start our careers and continue to reside here.  

-Hertha Rose  

Arvid (BE’74) and Nancy Pederson  

I only attended the U of S for one year; we had taken civil engineering in Regina until the end of the third year and we would have been the first graduating class from there. The government decided to only have one civil college, so we transferred to Saskatoon. It was a bit of an adjustment, but glad I graduated from there and have had a good career and am still working part-time. I met my future wife Nancy there.  

My wife ended up graduating from the University of Regina with a social worker degree in 1994 after we had four children.  

 We celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary this May 3, 2025.  
 

-Arvid Pederson

 
See last year’s alumni love stories @usaskalumni on Instagram and Facebook.