Bergen alumna Sarah Villarini, ’23, and John Kroner met for the first time at a rehearsal for the Bergenstages production of “Picnic” in September 2019. They played the leads who fall in love, but romance was not in the cards in the play script. However, romance was in the cards backstage! John and Sarah started dating and love blossomed. On February 3, 2024, John came up with a plan to lure Sarah to the College for a Bergenstages alumni press opportunity celebrating the group’s 50th anniversary. Prof. Jim Bumgardner escorted an unsuspecting Sarah into the Ender Hall Lab Theatre where she saw John standing there surrounded by illuminated block letters of “Marry Me” and photographs of the two performing in the Bergenstages theatre troupe. Sarah soon realized what was going on and went to John. John got down on one knee and proposed to Sarah. The couple became engaged on the very same stage that the two had performed on about 5 years ago.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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