Some of the most important people in our lives we meet during adolescence. From best friends to classmates, even a first love, these years offer some of our most meaningful and life-changing relationships. And sometimes we don’t even realize it.
For many, the transitional period from adolescence to adulthood comes with the drama of changing, or even loss of, those central relationships, but for a few, these relationships remain vital and central for the rest of our lives.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we asked Academy alumni to share their stories that have stood the test of time.
Matt Ellis ’94 and Sheila Lee ’94: An Unrequited Crush
Sheila had a crush on me from the start, but it took me a bit longer to catch up with her enthusiasm.” ~Matt Ellis ’94
Sheila and Matt’s relationship goes all the way back to when they were new Academy sixth graders. They attended the eighth-grade dance as a couple and liked to hang out on the steps outside the gym after school. Matt says he remembers Sheila’s mother bringing a litter of Yorkshire terrier puppies to school. “I ‘stole’ one and ran around campus with Sheila trailing behind!”
Their relationship got more serious in their early years of high school, making great memories with friends like Jane (Hamilton) Pilger, Heath Driver, Jack Hinrichs, and Christine Archibech.
Matt says some of their favorite memories include attending each other’s volleyball, tennis, soccer, and basketball games; time in the Senior Commons between classes and leaving notes in each other’s lockers; spring afternoons in the Quad; and competing to see who had the best physics lab notebook.
“While we never dreamed that we would end up marrying each other,” Matt says, “we kept our relationship going long-distance” while attending different undergraduate and medical schools, finally marrying in June 2002.
Matt and Sheila will celebrate their 24th wedding anniversary this year. They live in Durham, NC, and have a son who is about to graduate from high school and a daughter in 10th grade. “We frequently reflect on our time at the Academy,” Matt says. “Of course, we feel blessed to have met each other. However, our relationship was one of many that had a deep impact on our lives. The Academy was a truly special place, full of potential and endless possibilities! Go, Chargers!”
Submitted by Matt Ellis ’94
Diane Alongi Berger ’02 and Joel Berger ’99: Romeo & Juliet? No, a Midsummer Night’s Dream!
Diane and Joel met in March 1999, two months before he graduated. They were both cast in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and somehow, Joel discovered the gumption to approach Diane. Although a freshman dating a senior was quite scandalous at the time, they clearly had a special connection that eventually led to a marriage proposal in the backstage makeup room (where they had shared their first kiss), and two delightful daughters, Laini ’30 and April ’32, both currently Academy students.
Submitted by Diane Alongi Berger ’02
Kimberly Weeth ’04 and Daniel Anaya ’03: Invisible String Theory
Who knew you could meet your true love at 12 and 13 and not know it for two decades….” ~Kimberly Weeth ’04
Kimberly and Dan met in middle school at Albuquerque Academy. Dan was a grade ahead, a classmate of Kim’s brother, Alan ’03. While they knew of each other, they did not spend any real time together.
Fast forward nearly 15 years to March 2018: Both Dan and Kim lived in Los Angeles — unbeknownst to them, less than a mile apart. Kim was working in medical sales and training for her first half-Ironman, which required ocean-swim practice every weekend. A training friend worked with Dan, stationed at the Air Force base in LA, and nudged them to meet up. The rest is history.
Kimberly and Dan’s first date lasted hours; they talked all night, catching up on their world travels, careers, books, and life philosophies. They count this first date as their official anniversary because, from the moment they started talking, they both knew this was it.
They are thrilled to be back in Albuquerque, stationed at Kirtland AFB, with their two children, Evelyn, 4, and Logan, 1.
Submitted by Kimberly Weeth ’04
Colleen (Cates) Gold ’83 and Andy Gold ’83: Family Lore
It always makes me laugh to think about our senior will in the Academy yearbook when they wrote, ‘Colleen leaves Andy 19½ times.’ I guess it’s that half that has made the difference!” ~Colleen Gold ’83
Attending the Academy together has been foundational for the Gold family. “Our kids have been raised on that creation story,” Colleen says, “which began when we were gathered around the water fountain, waiting for lunch. From helping the broccoli fulfill its entelechy (an Academy grad’s way of saying, ‘eat your vegetables’) to freaking out our rabbi when he saw in our B’nai Mitzvot notes that we told the girls to ‘Eat Dead Hippo Meat’ (thanks, Mr. Slevin), or finding love notes between us, written on an old copy of Hamlet — small details from AA have become family lore.”
Colleen and Andy agree that the education they received, the opportunities created, and the life they’ve made together were built on that foundation.
Submitted by Colleen (Cates) Gold ’83
Anne (Lowry) Taylor ’91 and Kyle Taylor ’91: Look, Mistletoe!
I don’t recall when we actually met, but I knew who he was because he was a varsity wrestler in eighth grade, and he let everyone know that, even though he wrestled the lowest weight class of like 98 pounds and didn’t even weigh that much!” ~Anne Taylor ’91
Anne and Kyle were members of the first sixth-grade class to admit girls to the middle school, which was also the year the middle school buildings opened. Through the years, they shared a couple of classes, including Sr. Esquivel’s Spanish class, where Kyle used to give Anne Runts candy.
“We didn’t really date until our senior year, when he kissed me around Christmas under the mistletoe someone had hung up by the senior lockers,” Anne says. After a few more dates, they went their separate ways as they headed off to college. But like many Chargers, they got together with their Academy friends during college breaks, and they started dating long-distance. Naturally, when they married in 1996, the wedding party was mostly made up of Academy alumni.
Anne and Kyle have four children — three of them Academy grads themselves — and one grandchild. Fun fact: Their oldest, Kylee Taylor ’16, is engaged to Elijah Lucero, Academy Class of 2016.
Submitted by Anne (Lowry) Taylor ’91
Richard Garcia ’76 and Jody Cantrell ’77: Thank You, Mr. Harper!
I am thankful that Mr. Ashby Harper and the school leadership saw that women at the Academy would greatly enrich our program and grow its legacy.” ~Richard Garcia ’76
Jody was among the first girls admitted to the Academy in the mid-1970s, and Richard was interested. “I asked her out,” he says, but “she turned me down. She was promised to another Academy boy, and that was the way it was. I thought they would marry.”
They went their separate ways after graduation — Richard to school in California and Jody to Switzerland for a year. They reconnected at a holiday alumni event and attended a Lobos basketball game for their first date. There were fireworks, Richard says, but they were focused on their education. While Richard graduated from Pomona College in 1980, Jody was accepted at Scripps College for Fall 1980.
“There were numerous ups and downs,” Richard says, “but Jody never lost faith in me or our relationship. She graduated from Scripps in 1983 and began working for AT&T. In 1985, she accepted a promotion in the Bay Area. We committed to moving in together in a lovely cottage in the Berkeley Hills.”
They got married in Santa Fe in 1989, have three sons, and eventually found their way back to Albuquerque.
Submitted by Richard Garcia ’76
Susie (Tepper) Martinez ’02 and Justin Martinez ’02: Summertime Sweethearts
For our entire senior year, we were that couple. Always together. Often sharing the same chair. Publicly and unapologetically affectionate. To our classmates: please accept our belated apologies. Sorry, guys. Truly.” ~Susie Martinez ’02
For Susie and Justin, romance hit hard the summer before their senior year. “We fell in love,” Susie says, “decisively and unmistakably.”
After graduation, they both headed north to the University of Colorado Boulder, Justin studying economics and Susie anthropology. A few years later, 2008 to 2011, they earned their master’s degrees from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. “Somewhere in the midst of all that — long overdue — we got married in 2010 at the beautiful Hotel Albuquerque, even though Colorado had firmly become our home,” Susie says.
They moved to the Denver area a year before welcoming their first child, Adelina, now 10. Sonia arrived in March 2020, exactly one week before the world shut down due to COVID. “We like to say she made her entrance with maximum dramatic impact.”
Justin works as a software engineer and serves on the local city council. After 10 years in social work and a growing desire for better balance, Susie shifted her focus to the political arena as well, working on local campaigns. Twice a year, they take their daughters back to Albuquerque to visit family — “a place that will always feel like home,” Susie says. “We love revisiting our old haunts and noticing how the city has changed, even as it continues to hold all the pieces of where we began.”
Submitted by Susie (Tepper) Martinez ’02
Julianne (Newmark) Engberg ’92 and Eric Engberg ’92: Mykonos Meet Cute
Friends throughout high school, Julie and Eric sat next to each other in AP Economics and BC Calculus during their senior year, but after graduation, they went in separate directions. Eric attended college and then joined the dot-com boom in California while Julie headed to Michigan for her BA and PhD.
Julie, visiting Albuquerque in December 2003, was having dinner at Mykonos with her parents when someone at the next table asked, “Julie? Is that Julie Newmark?” It was Eric, recently returned to New Mexico for solemn reasons; his father had died, so he was helping his mother.
Julie and Eric dated long-distance (with many trips between Albuquerque and Detroit) until Julie moved to New Mexico in August 2005. They married in December 2006 — and, nearly 20 years later, they’re back at the Academy, where son Rowan is a seventh grader, and their daughter Cece will begin her Academy journey next year as a sixth grader.
Submitted by Julianne (Newmark) Engberg ’92
Alex Flores ’04 and Karen (Gutierrez) Flores ’04: Charger Roots, Growing a Family
Alex and Karen were first friends at Albuquerque Academy, then went their separate ways for college and grad school, and reunited in Albuquerque. They left again — together this time — for seven years for Alex’s active-duty service in the Marine Corps, and eventually came back home to Albuquerque. They’ve built a life they love with their two boys — supporting each other’s journeys, still bleeding Charger red, and making some of their favorite family memories right back on campus as their little guys cheer at Charger games and take tennis lessons.
Submitted by Alex Flores ’04
Andrew Wiese ’87 and Kristen (Scarton) Wiese ’87: How’s Life? (It Turned Out Pretty Great.)
Even though Kristen and Andrew never dated in high school, they often found one another during treks across campus, asking “How’s life?” with a little nod and a smile. They were in the same friend group, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that, when college breaks overlapped, they began spending more time together. They moved to Los Angeles after college, got engaged in 1995, and were married in Taos in July 1997.
Willa ’21 and Piper ’24 were born in Los Angeles in 2003 and 2005, and a few years later, Kristen and Andrew moved back to New Mexico to be closer to family. “Both girls are incredible athletes,” says Andrew, “which they certainly get from their mom.” Willa played DI soccer at Loyola Marymount University, graduating with a degree in biology, and lives in Santa Monica, working for Johnson and Johnson as an orthopedic trauma medical device sales rep. Piper is a sophomore at the University of Hawaii, majoring in philosophy with a minor in psychology. “We’re heading out there in March to be sure there’s actually a university present, as every photo she sends is of rainbows, palm trees, and white sandy beaches!” Andrew says.
Submitted by Andrew Wiese ’87
Angelica Ortega ’15 and Cody Crosby ’15: A Second-Generation Charger Love Story
The Academy has been part of our story for generations.” ~ Angelica Ortega ’15
Cody Crosby ’15 and Angelica Ortega met in the 6th grade at Albuquerque Academy in 2008 and graduated in 2015. They are both second-generation Academy alumni. Cody’s dad is David Crosby ’79 and Angelica’s parents are Academy sweethearts Loretta Cordova de Ortega ’77 and Roberto Ortega ’78. Angelica is also the granddaughter of former teacher and coach Vince Cordova. Ten years after graduating, Angelica and Cody got married in July 2025. They are still involved at the Academy. Cody has been a varsity football coach for seven seasons. Now, he serves as the team’s offensive coordinator. Cody is proud to carry on Mr. Cordova’s legacy as a coach as well.
Submitted by Angelica Ortega ’15
Tiffany (Garcia) Martinez ’01 and Carlos Martinez ’01: Coming Full-Circle
One of the best parts of marrying someone you’ve known since sixth grade is the deep history that comes with it. You know each other inside and out.” ~Tiffany Martinez ’01
Tiffany and Carlos get back on campus often these days because their children attend the Academy. “While it hasn’t always been easy, it’s been a pretty wild and special full-circle moment,” Tiffany says.
Submitted by Tiffany (Garcia) Martinez ’01
Megan (Kennedy) Borrego ’96 and James Borrego ’96: Old photos, new laughs, same Charger spirit
The kids and I were cracking up looking at old photos from our time at the Academy. Red said the quad could have been taken yesterday—even the fashions feel familiar.” ~Megan (Kennedy) Borrego ’96
James and Megan met as freshmen at the Academy and began dating their senior year. This summer, they will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary—a milestone rooted in friendships and memories formed on campus. The Academy, and their Class of 1996, will always hold a special place in their hearts.
Today, that connection continues through their children—Grace ’24, Zachary ’27, and Nicholas “Red” ’29—each of whom has had the opportunity to attend the Academy. Sharing stories, traditions, and even a few laughs over old photos, the Borregos are experiencing the Academy all over again, this time as a family.
Submitted by Megan (Kennedy) Borrego ’96
Jasmine (Barnsley) Pitcher ’00 and John Pitcher ’00: Prom Y2K
Forever thankful to Albuquerque Academy for sparking our love of learning, bringing us together, and now welcoming our three children to continue the tradition.” ~Jasmine Pitcher ’00
Submitted by Jasmine (Barnsley) Pitcher ’00
Charger Love Stories
It is incredible to see so many of our Chargers have gone the distance. Their love inspires us to remember all of the amazing connections made here at the Academy.
If you would like to share your love story, or even a platonic “pal-entine” about a best Academy friend, we always love to hear from you. Please submit photos and a short description about your connection to [email protected].
