Love and Northwestern in 2025

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MAX: Welcome back to Northwestern Intersections, a Northwestern Alumni Association podcast. In this special episode, we're taking a break from our normal careers focus to hear about how alums found love on campus. Enjoy these Wildcat meet cute stories and Happy Valentine's Day from Northwestern University. Our first Wildcat love story comes from two award-winning orchestra directors whose summer meet cute blossomed into marriage and a life of teaching together in the same school district.

LAUREN ROZNOWSKI HAYDEN: My name is Lauren Roznowski Hayden, and my husband is Mike Hayden, and we met at Northwestern in the summer of 2009. We were both doing a four-summer Master's of Music program for music teachers around the world, and we would live on campus, for six weeks, for four summers. We would go down there and teach and come back. And the first summer that we were down there, Mike and I met. And we went on one date, about a week before the summer session ended, and we went to--

MIKE HAYDEN: Giordano's.

LAUREN ROZNOWSKI HAYDEN: Giordano's, yes.

MIKE HAYDEN: And I can't remember where the Giordano's location is. It's no longer there anymore. It was under a parking garage or next to a bank, no longer there, sadly.

LAUREN ROZNOWSKI HAYDEN: But we went to Giordano's and had a really good first date, and then the summer session ended. And he was living in Arizona, and I was living in Milwaukee. And I had been planning on attending a wedding, in Milwaukee, a couple days after we were done. And I called my friend, and I said I just met this guy. Can I bring him? Can I add a plus one to the wedding? And she said, oh my gosh, yes, of course, and she was so excited. And so Mike then, instead of driving back to Arizona, he drove with me back to the Milwaukee area. And we went to the wedding, and he stayed for a few days. Then, he went all the way back to Arizona. And then we made plans to meet in Colorado, over Labor Day weekend, to see a college football game, which was the first college football game I ever went to. And it was not enjoyable, and we had a great time. And then we flew every three weeks from then on to see each other, wherever we were at the time, and it was a very whirlwind romance, I think. And then a few months later, Mike put in a resignation letter for his teaching job in Arizona and planned to move up with me to Milwaukee without a plan for a job. And I can let you take it from there.

MIKE HAYDEN: Yeah. I think that's pretty close. We really first met each other within the first few days of this summer Master of Music Ed program. It's a small cohort of people, and since it's people from not just the Chicagoland area but, like myself, from different parts of the country or all over the world, it becomes easy to be very tight with this group, especially that are entering for the first year. And so we spent much of the summer with each other, in almost all of the same classes, very similar social gatherings. And just throughout those, we got to spend time getting to know each other a little bit more. And as Lauren mentioned, we did go on like a first date to that Giordano's, and it just seemed that it was worth giving a try. So it was like a small steps at first, and then I decided it was worth exploring and decided to move. And that was many, many years ago, and it's one of the best decisions that I have made in my life. And we have two beautiful daughters and very successful careers and an amazing life, and the start of that was being at Northwestern. L

AUREN ROZNOWSKI HAYDEN: And I had just left a job. I was transitioning that summer from one job to another, and I had been single for a while. And I thought, I wonder if maybe I might meet somebody this summer, down at Northwestern, and how long have we been married now, 13? MIKE HAYDEN: We've been married since 2011. LAUREN ROZNOWSKI HAYDEN: Next year will be 13. MIKE HAYDEN: 13 in December. LAUREN ROZNOWSKI HAYDEN: And we recently celebrated the 10-year reunion of our graduating cohort from our Master of Music program, and that was something we actually organized ourselves. And people flew in from all around the country, and it was one of the most magical nights to see our old friends. So we got together right on campus. We met at Northwestern. Then, we walked around a little bit and saw everything that had changed. And I think because Mike and I met in this high academic environment, it just like the intellectual connection was so present right away. And our careers are so closely aligned, we always had the dream. Since we knew we were going to spend our lives together, we had the dream of working together one day too. So a job opened up in Wauwatosa, which is where we were living, and where I went to school, and Mike started working there. And then a few years later, a feeder middle school to his high school job opened up, so this is our sixth year working together. And we will be here until we retire, and it's just really cool. It's wonderful.

MIKE HAYDEN: All of that started in Evanston. I've been back on campus a number of times. For a while, I was doing some guest lecturing and a few of the Music Ed classes, Music Technology Ed classes. It has a lot of great memories, and even when I run into people in the community that turns out also went to Northwestern or my students' parents that go there. When they hear that Lauren and I went to Northwestern, or they're reminded, there's this really great bond of alumni. And it is pretty great to talk to people about the things that they have experienced in their memories as well, which are different from Lauren and mine being grad students. However, it's still this unique Northwestern connection.

LAUREN ROZNOWSKI HAYDEN: Yeah. It's so wonderful, and the four-year program, you change so much in your life in four years. And because this was grad school, people were older. We had people who were middle aged and people who were in their early 20s. And the first summer, Mike and I met, and then the second summer, we were living together. And then the third summer we were married, and the fourth summer we had our house. And we had other people in our cohort who had a baby during that time. So much life change that happens in that time of your life, and it was a very special time for us. And when our students ask how we met, it's really fun to tell them the story. Because really, it was almost love at first sight, because it happened so fast. And it was really-- I think we were both at a point in our life where we were ready to take a gamble on something, and it worked out.

MIKE HAYDEN: Yeah.

MAX: Our next guests met at Norris and continued to stay connected to campus. Hear the story of how they met and the Wildcat themed pizzazz they had at their wedding.

JENNIFER CARUSO-MULLMAN: My name is Jennifer Caruso-MULLMAN, and I'm class of '99. J

EREMY MULLMAN: And I'm Jeremy MULLMAN, class of 2000. J

ENNIFER CARUSO-MULLMAN: So Jeremy and I met in the spring of 1997, toward the end of spring quarter, and our mutual friends had worked on me all of spring quarter, in a Political Science, class, to date their friend. And I was very hesitant about it, but I finally relented. And I remember, our friends, they talked Jeremy up, and they thought we had a lot in common. We both went to-- we graduated from Medill. We were both students of Medill, and I was the editor of the yearbook, and he was the editor of The Daily Northwestern. So he thought that would be a great match. Friends thought it would be a great match. And so we met on the steps of Norris for our first date, and for a precursor for the rest of our lives, I was late, but I got there. And then we went on a date party with his fraternity, and I remember it was my first blind date. And I remember like the date was going really well, and I thought, blind dates are great. I can do more blind dates, but lo and behold, that was my first and last blind date. And afterwards, we went to Clark's, in Evanston, which is no longer, and had a nightcap there of pancakes.

JEREMY MULLMAN: Yeah. So I think that is mostly accurate, I think, as I remember it. But yeah, it was a blind date. It was just mutual friends. They did some work on Jen to try and talk me up, even though we both were regulars in the halls at Students' Publishing Company, where I was the editor of The Daily, and Jen was the editor of The Syllabus. Like we hadn't really met in person. It was almost odd. I guess the newspaper and the yearbook keep somewhat different ours. And so we were set up on a blind date. It was a date party at The Park Hang, out in I think Lincolnshire, where it is. I think Jen won, whether or not that was fair and square, or I rigged it a little bit to help her out, I can't say for sure, but she won. And then on the way back, I think the day party was meant to go somewhere else for dinner, but we like dropped out of it. Ended up at Clark's, across the street from Becky Crown, and did some pancakes or something like that. And that was really where the story starts. And right now, we live about a mile from Ryan Field. We haven't gone too far, and we're both around campus pretty often. Jen works for NU, in the Development Office, on the Board of Students Publishing still, which keeps me involved with The Daily and The Syllabus yearbook and all those things. So it's definitely a Northwestern story.

JENNIFER CARUSO-MULLMAN: Yeah, and we have two children, Jack and Josie, who have grown up on the campus. We've been here-- we have season tickets to basketball, men's basketball, and football and women's basketball. Also, we brought the kids to plays on campus and The Arts Circle. And so yeah, our family has grown up around here, and we are definitely a purple family, through and through. J

EREMY MULLMAN: We got married in 2005. It's been a minute, a while ago. At the wedding, there were a few great Northwestern touches, including having purple potatoes as part of the entree plates. But really, probably, the best one was bringing in our entire wedding party to go to Northwestern. As it happened all of my groomsmen were friends from NU, and Jen, a couple of her wedding party was as well. So we had a great NU representation there, and it was a great moment with so many alums in. The room the music comes on, and everybody's up clapping, as if it were a football game or something like that. And it just set the tone for a really fun, festive celebration. So that was definitely a purple stamp on our wedding.

JENNIFER CARUSO-MULLMAN: Have to owe it all to those beginnings on the steps at Norris.

JEREMY MULLMAN: Yep, go Cats.

MAX: Our final guests met in the cafeteria and never looked back, enjoying life in Hollywood as actors and producers. Hear how Kathryn Hahn and Ethan Sandler met on Northwestern's campus.

ETHAN SANDLER: We met our first year of college. My very close and still dear friend Daniel Milder, Daniel Avi Epstein Milder, from Seattle, Washington, they went on a date. And Kathryn and her friend Alex came by the dormitory, and we met very briefly then. And then we had mutual friends in common, I would say. But it was the beginning of sophomore year, where I remember really encountering Kathryn at the cafeteria, a very kind of bleary morning. Our mutual friend James Oberlander was having breakfast. I sat across from him. Kathryn came and joined the table, and in a matter of three minutes was the funniest person I had ever encountered. I know I've said this before, Kathryn. I'm sorry. She gave me all the material that I now see her give Uber drivers and watch them fall in love. Like just the classic I grew up in Cleveland, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Albert Belle is who you referenced.

KATHRYN HAHN: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

ETHAN SANDLER: I was like she knows Albert Belle? Like she burped, like all the shit that people all now completely. You know what I mean? And it worked on me. I was just like, who was that? And then it was parties mostly. Right? We mostly just saw each other socially, and then, lastly, I saw her perform. I saw her perform in the famed Schenley Pavilion in a Mamet play called Edmond, and she was just so good and clearly operating on a level that the rest of us weren't as a performer. And especially at that time of my life, still today, that's what I respect. That's what drew me to her, conclusively, was just watching her work was staggering.

KATHRYN HAHN: OK. Well, we heard-- Ethan, that was beautiful. From what I recall, we both had hometown honeys, when we first met, who were, of course, like whoa, for them it was not long. As soon as we met, it was not going to be that. Neither of them were going to last that long. And I remember meeting him at the cafeteria, and I remember-- well, what happens with me sometimes, at that age at least, is that when I was flirting, I get mean. He had a very clean plate. He knew exactly what he wanted from the lunch line, or whatever it's called, cafeteria. So he had a very neat tray, and mine, it was like I never would be fed again. And so I had more food than one-- like every time I went through the line, I had to eat-- I had to pile as much food as I possibly could on it. And I remember really making fun of how neat his tray was, and it was because I was flirting with him. And I pretended I knew a lot about baseball. It's hilarious you think I knew a lot about baseball, but I knew two players. And anyway, I remember it being a really fun lunch, and I was like, who the hell is this guy? He's so cute. And then we did have a few dorm room talks, where I think you didn't really dig me for a second, because you also had a necklace I also made fun of.

ETHAN SANDLER: Do you remember what it was?

KATHRYN HAHN: Yes.

ETHAN SANDLER: Oh.

KATHRYN HAHN: A seahorse that he ended up getting a tattoo of on his back on one of our first dates. And I got some three little, teeny moon tattoos, because I had 50 bucks, and that's what I could-- that's what I could get with that are the size of dimes. But we became like-- it was pretty instantaneous. Like we just stuck together for a while. Like we just like hung out together a lot, until it just inevitably happened that we were dating. And I had a single dorm room, in Hinman, maybe?

ETHAN SANDLER: Mm-hmm.

KATHRYN HAHN: And you just all of a sudden like moved into my single dorm room, and at the foot of my bed--

ETHAN SANDLER: Consensually. Is it OK to say consensual?

KATHRYN HAHN: Oh, yes. Yes, of course. And at the foot of my bed, there was a pile of socks that smelled so bad, but that's how in love with him I was is that I was able to let that go. And now when I think of how badly they smelled, I can't imagine. But like that's how in love with him was. You would open the door, and it was like, whoa, but we were kids. That's what it was. And we helped each other with homework, became best friends, and in love, like very early on, sophomore year, for reals.

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