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This collection of Viking Love Stories celebrates the magic of finding your perfect match and forging lifelong friendships along the way, admist the rigors of academia and a bustling campus. Three couples share how Grand View University played a role in their love stories and the transformative years that followed. 

Hallie and Blake Havard

Hallie and Blake Havard’s Viking love story didn’t begin until after graduation. Both in the Communications field, Hallie studied Graphic Journalism and Graphic Design and Blake studied Mass Communications at Grand View University from 2007 to 2011. During this time, GVU offered four majors within the Communication Department, including Journalism and Radio-Television.  

At GVU, the pair kept themselves busy. Hallie was the Editor-in-Chief of GVU’s former newspaper, The Grand Views, the Managing Editor of the student magazine and a member of the Student Activities Council. She was also part of Student Leadership and the Communications Department Assistant. Hallie edited Blake’s stories for the news and they would work together on projects in Communications classes.  

Despite this, they were only friends during their college careers and reconnected after graduation.  

“Because of the dog!” Blake yelled from the neighboring room during an interview with Viewfinder. 

Blake began working for the Iowa Cubs after graduation. During state baseball season, this was often around-the-clock work. He posted on Facebook asking if anyone in the area could let out his dog, and Hallie jumped on the opportunity to help out and play with the adorable Yorkie. As a thank you, Blake took Hallie out to dinner and the rest became history. Hallie believes that time spent apart was vital for their independent growth and allowed their relationship to develop. 

“As you grow up and go through different things, you change. The people that we were when we met early in college are not the people that we were when we started dating,” Hallie said. “We had to get to a certain point for it to actually be a good fit versus if we had kicked things off right when we first met.”  

Hallie graduated in 2011 at the end of the economic downturn and found the transition from college to the workforce to be a big adjustment. Hallie and her peers had gone from working around the clock and dealing with constant deadlines to having jobs that only occupied typical office hours and an overwhelming amount of free time.  

“You feel like you should get another job or volunteer or something to fill all the extra time you have outside the office,” Hallie said.  

The roots of Hallie and Blake’s love story are intertwined with GVU, even beyond being the place where they first met. In 2013, Blake proposed on campus using a custom The Grand Views newspaper header with a photo of the engagement ring and the big question. Blake orchestrated this event, inviting former GVU photographer Doug Wells, former professors Mark Siebert and Kaylene Ruby and the couple’s parents.  

The pair recently celebrated their 11th anniversary and had a daughter named Aubrey in 2022. They look forward to leaning into the parenting role and becoming increasingly family focused. As families develop, roles are redefined, and Hallie and Blake are no exception.  

“Our relationship went through so many transitions, from getting married to moving away from family, to going through job changes, moving back to Iowa and then becoming parents,” Hallie said. “Each of those steps redefined our relationship and how our dynamic works.”  

Hallie encourages college students not to limit themselves.  

“If something doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t have to be that way for you forever,” Hallie said.  

There is an immense amount of growth that takes place post-graduation. Big changes and challenges are inevitable, but finding the right person can make them easier to overcome.  

 “It’s so valuable to have someone who felt like home through all those changes,” Hallie said. “We both have always felt like home to each other, we fit into each other’s  families like a puzzle piece.” 

Stephanie and Daniel Paiva

Stephanie and Daniel Paiva were freshmen at Grand View University in 2011. Stephanie, who was from the nearby Carroll, IA area, initially enrolled in the Nursing program before switching to Biology to pursue a career in chiropractic therapy. Daniel is originally from Texas and was drawn to GVU by a football scholarship. Daniel was a Sports Management major throughout his college career.  

Despite starting nearly 900 miles apart, the pair were drawn together on campus.   

“We are complete opposites and I was the studying one,” Stephanie said. “I remember being in my room the second semester of freshman year and I was studying, and for like an hour straight, in the room next to me, there was this ‘ba da dum, ba da dum, ba da dum’ sound.”  

Annoyed, Stephanie knocked on her next-door neighbor’s door to find Daniel bouncing a racquetball off the floor, to the wall, and back to himself.  

“And I was like, ‘Would you please shut up? Oh. Hi,” Stephanie said. “So that was the first time we met.”  

During his freshman year, Daniel’s roommate was always active in their room. To avoid his roommate’s extracurricular activities, Daniel often took naps in the Nielsen common areas when he was struggling to sleep. Because of this, he was a recognizable face to Stephanie. Soon after, the two were brought together through none other than GVU Professor of Theatre Arts and Speech, Kristin Larson. Larson encouraged Daniel to audition for the One-Act-Plays in exchange for extra credit in an acting class. He auditioned and was later cast in a production alongside Stephanie, who was an avid thespian and a member of APO.   

For the entirety of the 15-minute, two-person play, Daniel was on stage in his underwear.   

This performance built a foundational relationship and Stephanie and Daniel remained friends for the rest of the semester. They talked every day once they split for the summer.   

“In August, I flew down [to Texas]. He picked me up from the airport and then we went on our first date,” Stephanie said. “So, I joke all the time that we went on our first date after I chased [him] across the country.”  

They began dating their sophomore year at GVU.   

“And then we’ve just been together ever since,” Stephanie said.   

Stephanie and Daniel made time for each other, despite being extremely busy with their activities and studies (which had virtually no overlap). Daniel played football and would work out or have practice at night. Stephanie kept herself busy with GVU extracurricular organizations including the GVU Choir, Cheer and Team GV, to name a few. She was also a tutor and Resident’s Assistant. The two would attend campus events, naming GV GLO as a favorite. Stephanie’s involvement on campus had a positive impact on Daniel, as he became more involved as well.   

“She pulled me out of my shell,” Daniel said.   

And in turn, Daniel had a positive impact on Stephanie.  

“And he got me to the point where studying wasn’t always the most important thing,” Stephanie said. “We are exact opposites of one another, but it kind of makes it the perfect fit.”  

Eventually, they graduated from GVU and moved to Texas. There, Stephanie went to chiropractic school and Daniel worked on his master’s degree. The couple moved many times for different jobs. They even bought an RV to travel and live in for a year.   

“At one point, we had moved, what, 11 times in like 13 years? Something like that. We moved around a lot,” Daniel said.   

Busy schedules put an inevitable strain on the pair’s relationship, but Stephanie and Daniel credit their relationship’s strength to consistently choosing each other.   

“We just made the choice of ‘We’re gonna do this, we want this relationship to last,’” Stephanie said. “Your life and who you are as a person changes so much as your education and stuff progresses. I remember sitting down and being like, ‘We will make it through this.’”  

The pair has two children, named Harper (four) and Kira (two), and have a third on the way.  

Stephanie and Daniel encourage those attending GVU to make the most of their time as students and to take advantage of the opportunities unique to a college campus.   

“We went out and did all the different things. The free movie nights, the free ice skating nights, I loved them,” Stephanie said.   

While it may feel long in the moment, the college experience will feel short in retrospect. Being part of GVU’s student body comes with benefits that include free events and resources. However, students may not take advantage of these benefits if they do not know they are available. Daniel’s advice is to keep up with campus happenings.   

“We always took advantage of everything that campus had to offer. Even if you’re not involved in everything, just stay in the know and do all the things that you can because you’re not gonna get that back,” Daniel said. “You’re only a college kid for so long.”  

Stephanie and Daniel’s Viking love story highlights the transformative power of campus involvement. By stepping out of their comfort zones and embracing new opportunities, the memories and relationships formed by Stephanie and Daniel at GVU shaped their future. 

Chad and Missy Buresh

Melissa (Missy) and Chad Buresh met during their first year at Grand View University back when it was still called Grand View College. Missy started at GVU in 1991 and Chad started in 1992. While originally from Iowa, they came from opposite ends: Missy from the Atlantic area and Chad from the Iowa City area. Ironically, both of them began their academic careers in Accounting, before deciding it was not a good fit and transitioning into Business Administration majors.   

Chad was drawn to GVU due to his love of basketball. Nick Nurse served as the head coach for the GVU basketball team from 1991 to 1993, during which time Chad was a player. At just 23 years old, it was Nurse’s first coaching job. After leaving GVU in 1993, he went on to have a successful career, ultimately becoming an NBA champion head coach with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Following this victory, he conducted a trophy tour in Iowa, where Chad and some of his former teammates had the opportunity to reconnect with him, and Nurse remembered them all fondly.   

Building connections is easier on a small campus, as individuals tend to recognize and remember each other. While GVU is still considered a small school, it was even smaller when Missy and Chad attended. There was only one females’ dorm (Nielsen) and one male’s dorm (Knudsen). Everyone either knew each other or knew of each other. Missy and Chad officially met at a party in the dorms, where a member of the basketball team introduced them.   

Missy remembered her first impression of Chad.  

“He’s really tall,” Missy said. “He’s really cute.”  

The pair had similar friend groups and their relationship developed naturally over time. Throughout her time at GVU, Missy worked in the admissions office giving tours, setting up appointments and doing other telemarketing-type work. Chad worked for maintenance during the summer, mowing yards and painting dorm rooms in exchange for free housing. During these years, the duo was immersed in GVU’s culture. Proximity played a large role in the development of both Missy and Chad’s relationship and their other platonic relationships. GVU alumni are connected through their shared experiences as Vikings.  

“We built that good core group of folks,” Chad said. “It’s really kind of surprising how many folks you still see around the Des Moines area.”  

Friends from Missy and Chad’s inner circle followed similar paths on similar timelines. This allowed them to share experiences of marriage and children at the same time and stay connected throughout.   

“We all stayed close and so we’ve kind of raised kids together. We’re now sending kids off and marrying kids off,” Missy said. “Our time at GVU was kind of this little village we built for ourselves.”  

While they keep up with alumni news and updates, Missy and Chad are not overly involved with GVU’s alumni events. They do, however, host another form of an alumni get-together.   

“We call it our Grand View Open,” Chad said. “There’s probably anywhere from 10 to 20 folks who we’ll invite every summer to have a little outing and get together and play golf, and then have dinner later on.”  

Missy and Chad make an effort to stay close to their long-term connections.   

“We’d go to some kid’s basketball game or one of our friends was a coach, so we’d go to their game,” Missy said. “I think it was mostly just an excuse to get together.”  

Even now, the group reminisces about their days at GVU. They talk about their time as students, as adults and the time in-between. They maintain inside jokes and nicknames and remember the good and the bad. Some GVU traditions have passed the test of time, such as the rock outside GVU’s Humphrey Center. This rock has historically been painted by students to express themselves, announce events and even propose marriage.   

“[The rock has] probably doubled in size,” Chad said. “Some archaeologist will find it and be like, ‘I just don’t understand. Why is there so much paint?’”  

Students would sneak out at night to paint on the rock, a feat completed by Chad as well.   

Missy graduated in 1995 and Chad graduated in 1996. They then moved in together in the fall of 1996 and married in 1997. They started off jumping between a few different jobs before both settling into jobs with long-time employers. Missy and Chad moved around Des Moines until settling in Clive in 2001 and having two children, Grant (22) and Gabby (18).   

“I think we probably would have entertained things outside [of Des Moines], but the job hunt was a lot different back then than it is right now,” Missy said. “There wasn’t really working remotely. You were going to have to move to wherever you were going.”   

The couple planned for opportunities in the area, which followed naturally as their careers became more established.  

Despite the passing of nearly three decades, Missy and Chad continue to celebrate their GVU roots through regular gatherings and cherished memories. This enduring bond not only enriches their lives, but also serves as a testament to the foundational role that institutions like GVU play in fostering lifelong connections and community. As they reflect on their college days and navigate the joys of parenthood together, Missy and Chad share a supportive network of alumni.