A UM-Dearborn love story

Most people see the UM-Dearborn parking garage as a space for cars. But newlyweds Kevin and Shelby (Lubienski) Saybolt, 2018 alums, say it's also a pretty nice place to see a sunset.

“It’s hard to see the horizon when you’re in a city. But if you go to the top of the garage, it’s actually a good view — definitely the best place to see the sun set when on campus.” says Kevin, who met Shelby at UM-Dearborn during the Fall 2015 semester. “When Shelby and I got married in September, we wanted to pick a place where you could see the sun set. That’s our thing to do together. It’s been like that since college.”

No, they didn’t choose the top of the university’s parking garage for their big day. Instead, they picked a Michigan ski resort that had a sunset view — nine years after first meeting on UM-Dearborn’s campus.

Shelby, an assistant prosecuting attorney in the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office, and Kevin, an Amazon production planning analyst, are celebrating their first Valentine’s Day together as a married couple. And they give UM-Dearborn the matchmaking credit.

“I can honestly say UM-Dearborn changed the trajectory of our entire lives. We found our forever person through those Kroger runs for ice cream before finals, the hikes at the EIC, having fun doing winter sports together and just taking the time to listen to each other,” Kevin says, noting that skiing at Boyne Mountain — the place where they got married — is still on their winter to-do list for the year. “In college, skiing helped bring us together.”

Well, more like esquiar, the Spanish word for it. Kevin and Shelby met in Spanish Professor Jorge Gonzalez del Pozo’s Spanish 201 classroom. When Gonzalez del Pozo quizzed them separately about their interests for a spoken-word exam, he took note of their love of winter activities. As the end-of-the-semester neared, their professor introduced them.

“I was a skier and on the Pine Knob Ski Patrol, so I talked about that with Jorge for the exam. Shelby talked about snowboarding,” Kevin says. “Jorge later brought us together and said, ‘You both really like winter sports and live at the Union, why don’t you consider walking back together — she’ll snowboard, you’ll ski.”

They both took Spanish 202 with Gonzalez del Pozo the following semester but, with different career interests, didn’t have another class together. That didn’t matter. They continued to meet up between classes. Shelby joined the Pine Knob Ski Patrol with Kevin. Kevin spent time caring for animals with Shelby, who loves dogs, at the Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit. And, as “just friends,” they helped each other consider what life would be like post-graduation. They reasoned that a romantic relationship may complicate their plans: Shelby, a psychology major, was considering graduate school; Kevin was pre-med and planned to be a doctor.

During Kevin and Shelby’s last academic year, mutual friend and UM-Dearborn classmate Madison Kuzma encouraged Shelby to speak up. “Madison and I were at a psychology teaching assistant picnic at Professor Roger Loeb’s house. I was telling Madison that whoever ended up with Kevin would be the luckiest girl in the world,” Shelby says. “She encouraged me to tell him how I felt before we graduated. She was right. I wasn’t sure how it would affect our long-term plans, but I needed to say something.”

Turns out, Kevin felt the same way and they made it official in March 2018 with a Pine Knob ski date at sunset. In December 2018, they graduated and their families met for the first time at the UM-Dearborn Fieldhouse ceremony. “They all hit it off. I have a lot of lawyers in my family and Kevin’s parents are attorneys, so our families just clicked,” Shelby says. “Over the years, we’ve learned that we’ve had so many things in common — including that we went to the same doctor’s office growing up — but it took UM-Dearborn to bring us together.”

Even with best-laid plans, the unexpected can happen. Kevin didn’t get into medical school, so he pivoted to a career in business and earned his MBA from UM-Dearborn in 2021. Shelby, drawing from behavioral health lessons at UM-Dearborn, realized she wanted to help juvenile offenders. She decided to go to law school.

“We helped each other on campus and then, when we found ourselves in the real world, we helped each other through those challenges and grew together,” says Shelby, who graduated from Wayne State University Law School in 2022. “We were worried that a relationship would pull our focus away from our futures. Instead, it’s what pulled us through.” In addition to career growth, they’ve added to their household by adopting two dogs, Muffin and Teddy.

Sharing wedding photos recently, the couple mentioned that Kuzma was in the wedding party and Gonzalez del Pozo was invited, but was unable to attend due to conflicting plans. Shelby says their favorite college memories — like watching the sun set after class — were represented throughout their big day.

“We may not have been on campus for the wedding, but UM-Dearborn played a big part in what our wedding day looked like — most importantly, who we were exchanging our vows with,” Shelby says with a laugh. “Without UM-Dearborn, I don’t know if we would have met each other. I came to UM-Dearborn because of the Michigan degree and smaller class sizes. I knew I’d get a great education, but I didn’t realize that I’d find my soulmate too.” 

Story by Sarah Tuxbury