Victoria G. Mendoza ’11 & Billy K. Crawford

When the sign-holding mascot appeared on the video board at a Texas Rangers game in the summer of 2007, Victoria G. Mendoza ’11 thought that maybe she had inadvertently become part of an inter-inning joke. But it turned out that her boyfriend, Billy K. Crawford, was indeed asking her to marry him­—and she said yes.

They wed on Aug. 6, 2010 at the Plantation House outside Austin, Texas. Hana K. Ali ’11, Ana Garcia ’11, Miyoko T. Pettit ’11, and Cecilia Venegas ’11 were bridesmaids, and Tsion M. Aberra ’11 sang during the ceremony.

Mendoza wore an organza and tulle dress made by her mother, and the guests dined on Texas barbecue and homemade cakes. At the end of the evening, the guests lined a pathway with sparklers as the couple left for a honeymoon in Mexico.

Crawford said that he viewed his proposal to Mendoza as a way of “reaffirming that we really would make it work.”

They had already been making it work for a while. Crawford­ had previously dated Mendoza’s best friend, but he and Mendoza became a couple during the summer after her sophomore and his junior year in high school. He began attending a college near her hometown so they could stay together.

When Mendoza, a History and Literature concentrator with a secondary in Ethnic Studies, enrolled at Harvard, Crawford followed her to Boston to attend Northeastern University for a year before transferring back to school in Texas. According to Pettit, Crawford then intentionally graduated early in order to return to Boston—where he is now an NFL agent—to live near Mendoza.

Mendoza said that getting married during college was “a relationship decision” that did not change what she wants to do with the rest of her life. Next year, she and her husband will relocate to San Antonio, Texas, where she will teach middle school through Teach for America. Mendoza, who was active in Phillips Brooks House tutoring programs and the advocacy group Act on a DREAM, said she has always been interested in immigration and education issues.

“They’re always like a young couple on a great honeymoon … but when I’m with them, I never feel like a third wheel,” said Pettit, Mendoza’s freshman year roommate. “That’s the kind of love they have—a really great friendship.”

“Billy was what I was looking for; we get along really well,” Mendoza said. “I could see myself with him for the long term.”

—SARAH J. HOWLAND