Alyssa is Amber's younger sister and hedgehog mom of Amber's adorable nephew Pinoli. If you ever need any advice about anatomy, workout programs, or a delicious and perfectly decorated cake Alyssa's your gal! Amber and Alyssa have grown especially close after Amber moved away for college and they share a love of National Parks, artistic hobbies, and late night FaceTime calls.

Adam is Luke's older brother and best man. Growing up in rural East Tennessee miles away from the next closest children meant that they were de facto best friends until Adam was old enough to drive. The two rekindled their closeness while Luke was in college, where Adam would drive up every weekend from Chattanooga to DJ at one of the college bars. Adam has since moved to Idaho Falls where he is a mechanical engineer at Idaho National Laboratory.

Victoria and Amber met through their sorority at the University of Illinois. After graduation, Victoria moved to Indianapolis and is now a process design engineer at Eli Lilly. While it's not the same as living a floor apart, Amber and Victoria have grown closer and make sure to visit each other as often as possible! Over the years, Victoria's husband Alban and Luke have also become close and the four of us enjoy hanging out all together.

Luke and Ben met freshman year at the University of Tennessee where they lived a few doors down from each other in their dorm. The two became fast friends and began living with each other the following year. They were roommates for the next three years before Luke left UT to go to grad school at UIUC. Ben stuck around and recieved his PhD in Horticulture in 2025. He is now a research professor at the University of Georgia studying turfgrass sciences.

Gwen and Amber met when they studied abroad in Australia for a semester sophomore year. They walked to and from class together every day, traveled around Australia, and went to the beach as often as they could. Once they returned to U of I their friendship continued to grow. Over the years they have become great travel partners and have gone on countless road trips together. Gwen moved back to the east coast and works in the coastal engineering industry, but Amber and Gwen still try to meet up in person whenever they can.

Luke met Tim freshman year of college, where they lived in the same dorm, but their friendship really took off during the pandemic of 2020 when Luke and Tim, by virtue of being the only folks left in Knoxville during remote classes decided to go on a hike together in the Great Smoky Mountains. The two were soon heading to the national park every few days with the goal of hiking every trail it had to offer. Tim has since finished that goal (Luke is still working on it as moving across the country put a damper on his progress) and has moved abroad where he has been a biological research assistant in Ecuador, Denmark, Italy, Thailand, Indonesia, and Nepal.

Luke met Tyler volunteering for the regional ASCE conference in the spring of sophomore year. The two grew closer throughout junior year as they shared more classes within the department of civil engineering at UT which came to a head as classes went remote at the onset of the pandemic. Paradoxically it was the pandemic that strengthened their friendship as Luke would spend nearly every day at Tyler's apartment attending virtual classes from his couch then hanging out and doing homework after. Tyler remained at UT for grad school after Luke left for UIUC and now lives in Maryland where he works as a structural engineer.

Makenzie (Mak) was the first person Amber met at the University of Illinois at an early move-in event. It just so happened they lived in the same door and on the same floor! The rest of freshman year, Makenzie was basically like another roommate playing card games, studying together, and staying up way too late laughing. Makenzie completed her masters in architecture and has since moved to Colorado Springs and is thoroughly enjoying all Colorado has to offer.

Samantha (Sam) reached out to Amber through the online room mate portal to see if they should room together and the rest is history. Not only did they room together freshman year, they also lived together for the next four years. Sam is finishing up her clinical year and will be receiving her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in May. If you have any furry friends in need of a good vet, Sam is your girl!