TCNJ

33 SPRING 2020 L ouis Mendoza and Angeles Melecio met in the first week of their first year at TCNJ, when both lived on the same floor in Travers Hall and fell in with the same friends. In no time, each was smitten with the other. Mendoza concedes he was hardly a master in the fine art of romance. Fortu- nately, their Travers friends rose to the occasion. "They, like, pushed us togeth- er," Mendoza recalls, "because I was too nervous to do anything about it." Four years later, Mendoza and Melecio are still together and still friends with the same circle from Travers. Last year the group spent spring break together in Montreal. This spring they were to travel to Miami, but the coronavirus nixed those plans. The trip would have been a welcome breather from the breakneck schedules each endured their final semester. For his senior project, Mendoza helped design a submarine that operates with fins instead of propellers. He interned last summer with an engineering firm in his hometown and plans to explore other hobbies — such as building guitar effects pedals — before entering the job market. Together from the start ANGELES MELECIO, urban education LOUIS MENDOZA, mechanical engineering Melecio works in a childcare center in Ewing, caring for children 3 to 18 months old. She'll take another year to finish her master's degree in urban education at TCNJ. It was her parents, born in Mexico, who motivated her to become a teacher. "Throughout my life," she says, "I've had so many teachers who have made an impact on me." Mendoza plans to visit campus often in the coming school year — and not only to visit his girlfriend. This fall his younger sister, Kaitlyn Mendoza '24, begins her first year at TCNJ.

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