On May 6, 2022, nearly 500 Scholars gathered at University Park for the medals ceremony that culminated their time at Schreyer. One day later, 162 miles to the east, two Scholar alumni who met because of a Schreyer Honors College t-shirt exchanged wedding vows and began their married life together.
Kylee Hansan’s and Sam Diacont’s story began way back in 2013 at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. She was there on a school trip. He, meanwhile, skipped school with his sister and future brother-in-law to go to the theme park. Little did Diacont know that the shirt he wore that day would play a large part in setting the course for his, and Hansan’s, future.
“There wasn’t a particular motivation to wear the [Honors College] shirt that day,” Diacont said. “I wore it a lot my senior year after deciding to go to Penn State but no specific reason that day.”
That shirt was the specific reason, though, that Hansan called out to him while they waited in line to ride a roller coaster.
“I didn’t hesitate at all. I remember seeing Sam in the Schreyer Honors College t-shirt and just being excited,” she said. “He was closer to the front of the line and going to board soon, so I just blurted out, ‘Do you go to Schreyer?’”
Diacont responded that he would begin in the fall, just moments before he took his ride on the coaster. Then amid the bustle of a busy amusement park, the pair missed on reconnecting that day. It wasn’t until months later, during their first weekend living in Atherton Hall, that Hansan and Diacont could get properly acquainted.
In Atherton’s TV lounge, Hansan and her roommate happened upon Diacont hanging out with some other first-year students. She recognized him right away and helped jog his memory about their brief encounter earlier that summer. Hansan said some “awkward” encounters followed during their first week of classes, including calling Diacont “Six Flags” because she couldn’t remember his first name. Before long though, they were spending hours together at a time and bonding over jellybeans, Honey Nut Cheerios, and solving the Rubik’s Cube.
“During our freshman year, Sam would frequently venture up to my dorm on Atherton’s fourth floor with one of those three things,” Hansan said. “We would sit on my blue futon and either guess the jellybean flavor, eat Honey Nut Cheerios, or he would teach me the Rubik’s Cube.”
Diacont’s developed an interest in Rubik’s Cubes only when his next-door neighbor in Atherton Hall introduced him to a formulaic approach to solving the puzzle. He became “hooked on solving it faster and faster” and it turned into a hallmark of the early days of their relationship.
“I passed along to Kylee what he taught me, and it was a way we bonded during freshman year,” Diacont said. “I actually bought Kylee a Rubik’s Cube as a gift at one point.”
Today, the couple is a little over nine years past the day they first met and upon reflection, Diacont says that Schreyer’s role in their lives as a couple and individuals was “pivotal in every sense.”
Neither Hansan nor Diacont have been back to Six Flags Great Adventure, or any amusement park for that matter, since that fateful day. They have, however, held on to their Schreyer t-shirts and wore them in celebration on their first day as a married couple.
