Rebecca and Joe Hawkes-Cates

Rebecca and Joe Hawkes-Cates met in 2009 while volunteering at a Miner football game.

“We handed out fruit and water to the marching band,” she says. “I was in Kappa Kappa Psi and he was in Tau Beta Sigma. We hung out together and just found each other really easy to talk to.”

Rebecca and Joe Hawkes-Cates
Rebecca and Joe Hawkes-Cates

The next year, Rebecca earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and biological sciences. Joe earned bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and computer science in 2011.

Married in 2013, a few of their favorite shared campus experiences included supporting the marching band at the football games and attending band parties together.

Today Rebecca works as an ICU nurse at St. Luke’s East and Joe works as a platform management engineer at Cerner.

Their relationship advice?

“Be open and honest about everything with your partner,” she says. “You can’t build a solid foundation without communication and trust.”

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).

Once-in-a-lifetime cab ride

Once-in-a-lifetime cab ride

Tamerate Tadesse is a SCADA automation engineer but started his career as an airport taxi driver. “I like to talk…

Bringing it all together

Bringing it all together

Before retiring, civil engineering graduate John Mathes headed his own multidisciplinary engineering business that specialized in high-profile contamination projects. In…

Remmers series: the talk of the town

Remmers series: the talk of the town

A professor once called Walter Remmers, MetE’23, MS MetE’24, “the laziest man in school.” And Remmers owned up to it….

Keith and Bobbie (Smith) Wedge

Keith and Bobbie (Smith) Wedge

Keith Wedge met his future wife, Bobbie (Smith), in November 1967 while he was helping establish a chapter of Pi…

Not your average Joe

Not your average Joe

You know all about Joe Miner, the world’s greatest mascot. But do you know Joe Minor, the civil engineer? Joseph…

Abby (Pittroff) and Ryan Riess

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,…