Newswise — While more and more people are discovering love online, it’s far from typical to find a soul mate during an online degree program. But for New Yorker Brittany Turner and Mississippi native Lamont Pearson, that’s exactly what happened when they began the master's of library and information science program at The University of Alabama.
The pair attended orientation in 2010, including a tour of the studio used for the Book Arts program at UA, and quickly formed a connection.
“Between group work, the Wimba chatroom, and Google video chat, our friendship really flourished," Turner says. "We started communicating on the phone and by text message. We were able to visit each other a few times during the Spring of 2011, with one of us flying to spend time with the other."
The major turning point, Turner says, was the April 27 tornado in 2011. The pair helped coordinate relief efforts with classmates through blogs and eventually made the trip from their respective towns to distribute goods in Tuscaloosa.
"We knew we wanted to help, but felt paralyzed by the distance," she says. "We immediately began working together with some of our other classmates updating a blog and LibGuide for tornado relief (http://legislativebarbie.blogspot.com and http://bama-slis.libguides.com/helpBama). I rounded up two carloads worth of donations and drove them down to Tuscaloosa, where Lamont would meet up with me to help with distribution. After that, we attended the 2011 American Library Association annual conference in New Orleans, and have basically been inseparable ever since."
Turner and Pearson returned to New Orleans this summer and tied the knot in a ceremony attended by many of their SLIS classmates. On Aug. 4, they'll take part in commencement ceremonies at UA, and each will receive a MLIS degree. They hope to find jobs in the northeast or southeast sections of the United States.Brittany, a native of Mastic, New York, has a bachelor's of arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz and a Master's of Public Administration from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the State University of New York at Albany.
Pearson, a native of Picayune, MS, has a bachelor's of science and a master's of the arts in English (Creative Writing), both from the University of Southern Mississippi.
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