Couple finds love through corporate finance

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Miriam Gillespie was called to the stage during a Dec. 10 ceremony at the University of Tennessee Martin to accept an award. Instead, she received a marriage proposal from John Ciesliga, who later that morning received his master of business administration degree.

The pre-commencement ceremony for MBA students became a celebration for two Memphians who met while pursuing their online graduate degrees.

“We met during an online class — corporate finance,” Ciesliga said in a news release. “She worked at Morgan Keegan. I worked at AutoZone, both on Front Street, downtown Memphis, and I’d seen on her Facebook profile that she worked just down the street from me, and I asked her if she wanted to study one night for corporate finance.”

A Mud Island restaurant was the site of their first face-to-face meeting, and in Ciesliga’s words, “the rest is history.”

Ciesliga earned his undergraduate degree from Davenport University’s Detroit College of Business in Michigan. Gillespie earned her undergraduate degree from UT Martin in 2007 and received her MBA almost a year ago. She was in the first student cohort to graduate from the university with an MBA degree offered online and designed primarily for banking and financial services professionals.

Ciesliga was in a different cohort, but they took a couple of online classes together. Their first communication was exchanging e-mails about class projects. As the relationship grew, so did the talk of marriage, and Ciesliga wanted to surprise Gillespie.

“(There are) a lot of roots between us at UT Martin, and even though the program was online, (the campus) is still, I thought, the best place to surprise her that really would mean a lot to both of us,” he said.

Ciesliga knew that Gillespie would attend the special ceremony for MBA students before commencement exercises, and he saw it as the perfect opportunity to propose.

But he needed some assistance, and College of Business and Global Affairs faculty members were pleased to help. After all graduating students were recognized, Kevin Hammond, the MBA program coordinator, called Ciesliga back to the stage to present an “award” to Gillespie for her persistence in earning her MBA degree.

“When he started calling my name, I thought, ‘Dr. Hammond, you’re picking on me. Thanks, Dr. Hammond.’ And then they called Johnny up there, I’m like, ‘Oh no, this can’t be good. This can’t be good,’” Gillespie said laughing, admitting that calling Ciesliga to the stage indicated something more than an award presentation was coming her way.

Ciesliga showed the crowd the framed “award,” which read, “Will you marry me?” Then, he turned, showed his framed proposal to Gillespie, dropped to one knee and proposed. Gillespie accepted, and the audience, which included members of both families, applauded its approval.

“The only one (family member) that knew was (Gillespie’s) father, because I had to ask his permission,” Ciesliga said.