Pulling off the perfect proposal: TMU alumni get engaged on campus
Popping the question with a trip down memory lane:
- How a TMU alumni pulls off the perfect proposal on campus without arousing suspicion
- A clever ruse and nostalgic TMU timecapsule moment captured by a friend
- TMU student services co-conspires to help make the special day a reality
- How the Campus Career Hub helped an Economics and Management student land a role with an investment company
- How a Graphic Communications Management student landed a job as a producer for CBC
- Working as resident advisors prepared these students to handle conflict and focus on resolution
- Thoughtful proposal marks a new chapter for these TMU alumni
Love is in the air as two TMU alumni get engaged on campus. A full circle moment to celebrate where it all began.
Grejdi Meta (Economics and Management ’22) rolled out a clever plan to propose to his long-time partner, Julia Lukaski-Dolecki (Graphic Communications ’21), so expertly executed it could form the plot of a rom-com.
The pair met through mutual friends while both living on campus at Pitman Hall student residence, with Frosh Week playing an important role in creating social connection.
A proposal equal parts romance and strategy
TMU offered these alumni more than an education and career opportunities, it was a place they forged their relationship and important friendships.
If love was academic, Meta could teach a master class on proposing marriage. It started with making it seem like a trip back to campus where the couple first met was his partner’s idea.
He planted the seed by recruiting a mutual friend who got the ruse rolling by asking for help on a group chat. He said he needed support with logistics on a collaboration he was working on with TMU. The friend is a content creator with clout, so the story checked out.
“He was purposely vague and casually mentioned he might be filming in Pitman Hall,” said Meta. “Julia got so excited. She's like, ‘did you see the text?’. I triggered the text.”
Lukaski-Dolecki urged him to agree, reminding him that their good friend rarely asks for help.
Meta told her he had booked a special brunch at a fine dining restaurant in Yorkville, but that he’d push the reservation for later, giving her a reason to dress up that day.
Where it all began on campus
The plan to propose in Pitman Hall in May required coordination with the TMU Student Affairs team.
“I was thrilled to receive the initial request idea from Grejdi in my inbox,” shares Valerie Bruce, director, Student Housing & Strategic Partnerships at TMU. “I recognized both of their names immediately as past student staff and was honoured to have our team support logistically. Our staff, including Ann Le, Danny Epih and Selma Luku, were excited to support the coordination which included ensuring the room would be clean, ready and accessible for the set up to help the proposal go off without a hitch.”
The pair were welcomed by residence staff before heading to the seventh floor to meet their friend. On the way they passed Lukaski-Dolecki’s old dorm room.
Meta suggested they go inside to check it out but Lukaski-Doleck was reluctant because they were already running late. But Meta insisted.
“We open the door and I see our friend standing there which was confusing,” said Lukaski-Dolecki.
When the friend stepped aside her world was transformed.
“The room was decorated exactly like my first-year residence,” she recalls. “My bed sheets, my pillows, even the corkboard. I was thinking, ‘this is so weird, why would he recreate my room like this?’.”
Then one detail turned everything upside-down.
“I saw my stuffed animal,” she says. “The one I’d had since childhood and brought with me in first year. It was always on my bed. There’s no way he would have that.”
After that, everything is a bit of a blur, she says. “I kind of blacked out, I was just so overwhelmed.”
Looking back, she says the moment felt surreal. “It was like walking into a time capsule. Everything was almost perfectly recreated, down to the diffuser on the side table,” she recalls.
She said ‘yes’ and the moment was captured by their friend.
Meta holds Lukaski-Dolecki on the day of their engagement.
Lukaski-Dolecki on move-in day at Pitman Hall.
The room was recreated by Meta for a special proposal.
The couple recently traveled to Europe to celebrate their engagement and look forward to planning the wedding next year.
People skills developed as a resident advisor
Today, Meta works at Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) Investments. He credits the Business Career Hub at the Ted Rogers School of Management and the exceptional support he received from Shabnam Ahmad, manager, Student Engagement & Development, for helping him land his first internship with the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.
“I was able to work and learn at a world-class investment organization,” said Meta. “Transcripts helped and my work as a leader in the economics student union. But what got me across the finish line was a project I created at one of the business bootcamps.”
From there, it was a domino effect. CPP hired him for a subsequent internship until he was eventually hired on, having proved himself an asset to the team.
In addition to the math, finance and economics foundations he built in his program that prepared him for a job making careful investment decisions day-to-day, Meta says a lot of the feedback he gets is around his emotional intelligence.
“I’ve been told I have strong interpersonal skills that include resolving conflict, deescalation and solution-finding,” said Meta. “I attribute that to my job as a residence advisor.”
Both Meta and Lukaski-Dolecki worked as RAs during their time at TMU. This allowed them to work professionally together as they grew their relationship.
He says that issues could escalate pretty quickly between roommates even over things that might seem trivial to most. He grew skilled at mediating to find common ground.
“Trying to understand people and putting yourself in their shoes helped me learn the people skills I continue to use in my current job,” he says.
Seizing opportunities to create a career path
By taking advantage of the opportunities TMU offered, Lukaski-Dolecki was able to launch a career in production and digital storytelling on the world stage at the Olympics.
Lukaski-Dolecki is a producer for CBC, a role she didn’t know existed while in university.
A 2021 graduate of Graphic Communications Management, she leaned into the parts of her program she loved, like graphic design, while branching out across The Creative School and business courses.
“I was always trying to diversify and try new things,” she said.
That mindset paid off. In her final year she was able to enroll in the Live Event Supercourse and took a leadership role producing The School of Fashion's annual end-of-year fashion show Mass Exodus.
A week after classes ended, a classmate from the Supercourse interning at CBC sent a last-minute job lead; CBC Sports was hiring an associate producer.
“She told me to send my resume within the hour,” Lukaski-Dolecki said. “I went for it.”
She landed a short contract covering the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in 2021), and has never looked back.
“That 20 days turned into Beijing, then more Games,” she said. “Now I’m an interactive producer. I’ve worked on four Olympics and been on the ground in Paris and Milan.”
“I never planned this,” she added. “But I grew up watching the Olympics with my dad, so when the opportunity came, it just felt right.”
Campus life becomes a launching point
Going back in time, Meta recreated his partner’s residence down to the stuffy on her bed.
So what does it mean to the happy couple to have TMU as a permanent part of their story?
Meta is grateful to the Student Affairs staff who helped bring his proposal to life. For him, TMU represents not only the education and career opportunities he gained, but also the lifelong friendships and memories that shaped his university experience.
His sentimentalism, which his fiancee teasingly calls ‘hoarding’, proved essential to a perfect proposal. Saving items from their time in residence made it possible to recreate her first-year room down to the smallest detail.
“It was really special he brought me back to where it started and in such a thoughtful way," said Lukaski-Dolecki. “He planned carefully to surprise me. It was truly a shock and something I’ll remember forever.”