Although Erin Hayden and Matthew Garger were both students at S&T for an overlapping year, they didn’t meet until the Spring Career Fair in 2012.
“I was recruiting entry-level automation engineers for the firm I worked at,” she says. “I had no idea I was also recruiting a husband!”
Erin earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 2008 and currently works at Mars Wrigley. Matthew earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering in 2012 and currently works at EN Engineering. The couple married in July 2017.
Their relationship advice?
“Don’t focus on being so close to family right after graduation,” she says. “Be flexible in location because so many amazing opportunities are out there. Also, if you can marry an engineer, do it. Our dinner conversations together are some of my favorites. No one quite understands the daily struggles you go through like someone who does the same thing as you.”
Share This Story
Spark a Memory?
Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).
Overcoming challenges
When Lelia Thompson Flagg, a 1960 graduate in civil engineering, arrived at Missouri S&T for the first time, there were…
Football, a history
The first game in Miner football history was played on Nov. 20, 1893, and the first Miner touchdown wasn’t scored…
Alyssa Purdy and Ryon Owings
Alyssa Purdy and Ryon Owings met during Opening Week in August 2014. Both lived in TJ Hall’s north tower –…
Abby (Pittroff) and Ryan Riess
Student athletes Abby (Pittroff) and Ryan Riess met in August 2002 outside the campus’s Rayle Cafeteria. “I thought to myself,…
Megan (Jekel) and Jonathan Pardeck
Megan (Jekel), a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, and Jonathan Pardeck, a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity, met through…
EV pioneer
As the auto industry begins to fully embrace the notion of electric vehicles, it has EV pioneers like Jon Bereisa…