AIR OF LOVE
Proposal with a view: Pitt alumnus pops the question atop the Cathedral of Learning
When Matthew Vendeville and his girlfriend, Kimberly Ciotti, showed up for a September fundraiser at Pitt, they were told the location had been changed.
The two University of Pittsburgh alums headed to the Cathedral of Learning. There the Cathedral’s building manager, Phil Hieber, met them at the entrance with a guest list and said he’d show them up to the gathering.
Ms. Ciotti said that once they got off to transfer to the second elevator she thought something bizarre was happening.
“I looked back at Matt and he wouldn’t make eye contact with me, so I was just like, this is weird,” she said.
But by then it was too late because two more steps and the couple was outside, on the roof of the Cathedral, which was strewn with roses and lit by candles.
“I saw the roses and I bawled. I really cried. I was wearing sunglasses and that saved me. I continued to wear them the entire time,” she said.
Mr. Vendeville proposed. She accepted.
“It’s one of those things you only do once. I wanted to do something no one has ever done before, and then it had to have a view. That is really hard to do in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Vendeville said Wednesday of the Sept. 24 proposal.
The couple met two years ago at a social for students in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh.
“We really are Pitt through and through. So, the Cathedral
“All of the stress was relieved the moment she said yes; it was worth every minute of planning.” — Matthew Vendeville, University of Pittsburgh alumnus
was especially fitting for us,” Ms. Ciotti said. “I was impressed that we were on the tippy top of the building.”
Ms. Ciotti, 25, went to Pitt for her undergraduate degree. She was also a member of the swimming and diving team for four years. Her father and brother also attended Pitt.
She graduated with a master’s degree in health administration in May 2016.
Now she works with the university’s Department of Medicine, where she manages the finances for the gastroenterology division.
Mr. Vendeville, 24, graduated with his master’s degree in public health in December 2016, and now he works for UPMC Enterprises portfolio company, Via Oncology, while working part time at Pitt with sciVelo.
“I am a first-generation Pitt student, but I’ve fallen in love with it because it is impossible not to,” he said.
During his time in school, Mr. Vendeville had a few encounters with Pitt chancellor Patrick Gallagher.
He sent the chancellor an email asking permission to use the Cathedral for his proposal.
Mr. Gallagher’s head of staff contacted him, saying the administration would be happy to help.
The chancellor’s office then helped Mr. Vendeville get in contact with Mr. Hieber.
“I was under the impression we were going to this fundraising gala with his mentor,” Ms. Ciotti said. “He actually sent me a calendar invite the week before, and it was forwarded from his mentor, so it seemed super legit. He really threw me off.”
Ms. Ciotti’s best friend, Megan Nicely, and Matthew’s sister, Cara Vendeville, helped set up the rooftop.
Mr. Vendeville said he started saving for the engagement ring after three months after they started dating.
The diamond is his grandmother’s 1920s diamond in a custom setting that he designed himself.
“All of the stress was relieved the moment she said yes; it was worth every minute of planning,” he said.