By KC IFEANYI

kni002@latech.edu

 

Tolliver Hall. It is the place to cram in those extra hours of late-night studying. It is also the place to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to the dorms.

On Monday night, however, it became the place to get engaged.

Tech students and Tolliver workers got an unexpected show when Steven Wilsek proposed to Amanda Sarkozi.

“If I was expecting this I would’ve had make-up on,” Sarkozi, a senior studio art major, said.

Wilsek, a senior GIS major, said he chose Tolliver for a specific reason.

“I wanted it to be real public,” Wilsek said. “I wanted it to top everything.”

Wilsek and Sarkozi met while working together for three years at the Tech Police Department. Wilsek said their one-year relationship began with their first dinner-and-a-movie date.

“We went to Applebee’s and then I took her to see the opening night of ‘Saw 2,” Wilsek said. “She watched most of it from the inside of her jacket.”

As if proposing at Tolliver was not quite unique enough, Wilsek did a little something extra.

The four TV screens in Tolliver, usually showing sports highlights, went black.

This caught the attention of some students including Brooke Jewell, a sophomore English major.

“I was wondering, ‘Why did it get so tense in here?’” Jewell said. “This is Tolliver; it’s supposed to be loud.”

Music from “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark” hushed the remainder of crowd as they watched the opening scenes of the movie.

The jungle setting of the movie, however, became Tech campus and Harrison Ford became Wilsek.

The video showed Wilsek running through campus and finally up to Tolliver’s doors with the heroic soundtrack playing in the background.

Wilsek, in complete Indiana Jones getup (whip and all), walked into Tolliver to a roar of applause from onlookers.

Wilsek exchanged private words with Sarkozi before getting on bended knee and slipping the ring on her finger.

“Awws” mixed with cheers as Wilsek and Sarkozi sealed the deal with a kiss in front of the Tolliver crowd that included Kevin May and Laura Ortego.

“I don’t think I could be that creative,” May, a senior GIS major, said. “[That] took a lot of guts.”

Ortego, a senior health information administration major, said she thought the proposal had an interesting twist.

“It was definitely one of a kind,” Ortego said.

Wilsek and Sarkozi said they are both happy and excited, and being together is all they have ever wanted.

“She’s perfect for me,” Wilsek said. “She fills in everything I don’t have.”

Sarkozi said, “I’m just happy I have him and I can say I’m his and he’s mine.”