Forget “The Bachelor” or “Love is Blind.” Finding your soulmate may be easier than you think. IU Indianapolis alumni and college sweethearts Karl and Clinton and Tara and Jacob all met on campus and grew their relationships while designing marketing materials and printing posters at the Multimedia Production Center.
Both couples continue to be close friends with one another — Tara and Jacob will be attending Karl and Clinton’s wedding next month! — and look back fondly on their time at IU Indianapolis.
Karl and Clinton (’18)
Question: How did the two of you meet?
Karl: Clinton and I met in the spring semester of 2015 and were in the Human Computer Interaction class together. We were both assigned to the same group project. I liked him, but I didn’t know he was queer. Funny thing is, Clinton knew that I was because he had sent me a message on OkCupid several months earlier (which I hadn’t noticed).
When Valentine’s Day was rolling around that semester, I finally saw his message and realized I knew him from class. This time, I reached out to Clinton on Facebook and poked fun about our almost-missed connection. We had our first date on Feb. 13.
Q: What were your first impressions of each other?
Karl: I thought Clinton was a lot more social than I was because he took control of the group project in a good way and always had a smile on his face. He was nice, he was kind and obviously very handsome. He was a charismatic person.
Clinton: The first thing I noticed about Karl was their intelligence. They were always easy to talk to. Sometimes you just vibe with the right people and it’s easy.
Q: What were your experiences like working in the MPC together?
Karl: When I met Clinton, he was already working at the MPC and I was in between jobs, so I applied to work there too. I mostly handled the print work. Working at the MPC is the most fun I’ve ever had at a job. I loved my time there and everyone we got to work with over our almost three years in the position.
Clinton: One of my favorite college jobs was working as a junior graphic designer at the MPC. Nate is the best boss ever and we met several other friends who we’re still in contact with.
Q: What were your favorite memories together in college?
Karl and Clinton: Clinton and I were the co-chairs for the Gamers Hall student organization. To recruit new members, we had a VR headset so students could try out games. We were really ahead of our time with that, and it made us the coolest student org tabling for sure. Every Friday night we also hosted a game night, which was a lot of fun.
Q: What does life look like for you both now after college?
Karl and Clinton: We graduated in the spring of 2018 and then moved to Cincinnati for Clinton’s job as a software engineer. Our move back to Indy happened right when the pandemic started. In March of 2022, we bought our first house together in Broad Ripple, which is actually close to where we lived together right before graduation.
Our wedding is set for March 11 of this year, and then directly after, we’re flying to Japan for our honeymoon. It’ll be the first time we’re travelling internationally together. We’ll be enjoying the cherry blossom season and visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima, which is a special place for Karl.
Karl: I went to Miyajima in high school and it’s still one of the most beautiful days of my life. I need to go back there and share that with my husband.
Tara and Jacob (’15)
Q: How did the two of you meet?
Tara and Jacob: We met in 2013 through our major, Computer Graphics Technology. We had most of our classes together and started out as friends.
Q: What were your first impressions of each other?
Tara: I thought that he was very sweet and had a similar sense of humor to me.
Jacob: My first impression of Tara was that I really wanted to talk to her, but would probably never get to because she was in a different friend group.
Q: What were your experiences like working in the MPC together?
Tara: I loved it! Most of our shared time at the MPC, we were just friends still. So, it was really fun getting to come to work with someone I was so close to and got along with so well.
I also knew Jacob had a different design style than I did, so I was able to use his skills on some of my MPC projects when I got stuck. It was really helpful!
Jacob: Working at the MPC was always fun, and rarely felt like work. Being able to work with Tara felt like an extension of our class time together, and it served as a bridge to us starting to hang out outside of class.
Q: What were your favorite memories together in college?
Tara: I would say working at the MPC might even be my fondest memory. I learned so much about design, had a great boss (Nate!), and to this day, Jacob and I remain close with most of our other coworkers from our time there.
Jacob: Since we worked in the Campus Center, Tara and I would get coffee together at either Starbucks or Caribou almost every day. That time definitely added up and is probably responsible for us eventually falling in love.
Q: What does life look like for you both now after college?
Tara and Jacob: We bought a house together at the end of 2018 near Irvington and live there with our cats! After over seven years together, we got married in October 2022.
