SV grad pops question in middle school classroom
JACKSON TWP — U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Jake Perri has taken his girlfriend, Taylor VanHoose, to many places around the world. But, to VanHoose, there is no place like home.
Perri, 24, who is based in Ankara, Turkey, knew how to capture her heart and proposed to VanHoose, 23, on Dec. 15 at Seneca Valley Middle School, where they met in the seventh grade.
“It meant more to me than any way he could have proposed to me abroad,” VanHoose said.
The two met in math teacher John Roman’s Tiger Team room, their old school homeroom. Homerooms compete and some students are highlighted during a monthly pizza party.
VanHoose and Perri met at the first party of their seventh-grade year.
“We had classes together. We were both pretty quiet,” VanHoose said.
“He was a nice kid, and he always had a nice smile.”
It wasn’t love at first sight for the couple. Perri, a Harmony resident, was determined to ignore those Cranberry Township girls, as students from different elementary schools began taking classes together.
Perri and VanHoose started dating in their junior year, shortly after they attended homecoming activities together.
Now more than seven years later, Perri escorted VanHoose through the middle school once more.
The two ate a school lunch in the cafeteria, before embarking down memory-filled halls.
“We were kind of able to relive our Seneca years in a way,” VanHoose said.
They visited some of their favorite rooms and teachers, like their eighth-grade science teacher Matthew Durst, who helped set up the proposal with Roman and Perri.
The couple’s last stop was the Tiger Team’s room. That’s where Perri popped the question. VanHoose said yes.
A full story appears in the Valentine's Day edition of the Butler Eagle.
