Stephanie M. Cole ’11 & Andrew W. Peace. Courtesy of Stephanie M. Cole.

When they were 12 or 13, Andrew W. Peace pushed Stephanie M. Cole ’11 off a chair at church camp. (He apologized, he claims.)

Nearly 10 years later, Peace bent down on one knee in front of a lighted Christmas tree at Copley Square in Boston and asked Cole to marry him. (She said yes.)

The couple will wed this September in St. Louis, with Cole’s four roommates­—Amelia H. Lin ’11, Luci Yang ’ll, Eunji Kim ’11, and Chelsea L. Shover ’11—serving as bridesmaids.

The couple had been high school sweethearts and dated long-distance during the first two years of college as Peace attended Ohio University.

“When we were able to work through the long- distance relationship, I realized this is somebody I could spend the rest of my life with,” Peace said.

Their relationship was strengthened by their complementary personalities, their mutual interest in helping others, and their shared commitment to their United Methodist faith.

He is spontaneous, she is organized; he is an EMT, she founded a branch of a non-profit that combats childhood malnutrition. Pressed to think of something annoying her fiancé does, Cole could only say that he sometimes calls too often.

“They’re well matched in that they’re both extremely giving people,” Lin said.

After sophomore year, Peace moved to Boston to complete an EMT training program at Northeastern University. Together, they have been active in the Boston church they attend and in the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship.

Given the length of their relationship, their compatibility, and their purchase of an engagement ring last April, Cole said she was eager for Peace to formally propose.

“I told him that if he didn’t propose by Christmas, I was going to propose to him in an embarrassing public way,” she said.

Immediately after the wedding, the couple will move to Mali to work for Project Peanut Butter, a non-governmental organization that aims to treat malnutrition in African children. Cole, an Organismic and Evolutionary Biology concentrator with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy, has worked with the founder of Project Peanut Butter throughout college. She added she and her fiancé see the work as their “Christian mission commitment.”

Cole’s roommates said they admire the two’s commitment to one another and to their work.

“They hold service to others in such high regard that they’re willing to devote their lives to it,” Lin said.

—SARAH J. HOWLAND