Augie Sweethearts: Kristina and Brad Wendell, Class of 2003

Submitted by Kristina Wendell of Geneva, Ill.

Brad and I met at Augustana and the rest is history! We met in our very first class we took at Augustana; it was a history class on the third floor of Old Main with Dr. Brown. Brad played football and baseball for Augustana and injured his foot his first year, so he was on crutches. The elevator was broken in Old Main, so he had to walk up three flights of stairs on crutches for history class and came in all sweaty! There was no air conditioning in that building then! I noticed him right away! Later we joined a study group for history class together and met each other in the library. I played on the Augustana women’s basketball team and most of Brad’s friends in college were on the men’s basketball team. Since the women’s team hung out with the men’s team, we began seeing each other a lot more besides having classes together because we were both education majors.

We started attending chapel together every Tuesday morning and that was where our relationship really grew and as well as our faith! We didn’t start officially dating until the end of our freshmen year. We both pledged in the spring, he became a Poobah and I became a Delta Chi. We started dating then and continued to date the rest of our years at Augustana. Brad pinned me our senior year and we continued to date about two more years after college before he asked me to marry him!  We have now been married for almost 15 years and have three beautiful children! Thank you to Augustana for bringing us together!