Emma Krasovich and Alan Southworth were each a few years out of college, living in New York City, when they met on a dating app. They’re both long-distance runners, and they connected over a love of nature and their mutual passion for running.
Alan is also a musician, having grown up in Connecticut singing and playing in the family band with his parents, who perform professionally. Emma and Alan hadn’t been dating long when she went to see his first solo singing gig in New York. She met his entire family and circle of friends that night, all of them in the audience cheering him on. Emma quickly bonded not just with Alan but with his clan as well … and the rest is history.
When they met, Emma and Alan were both thinking about going back to school. Emma had recently earned a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University. She wanted to pursue a PhD in a field that would allow her to inform environmental policies that protect public health. Alan had graduated from Princeton with a bachelor’s in geosciences, and he wanted to get an MBA to make clean energy technologies the market standard. Both Emma and Alan care deeply about using their skills and educations to make the world a better place.
They also care about each other, balancing their individual ambitions with making sure the other gets an equal chance to pursue their dreams. When Alan got accepted to UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, they relocated to the Bay Area and Emma took a research job at the university’s Global Policy Lab. Now that Alan has completed his degree and is working in a leadership development program at PG&E, Emma has enrolled in Stanford’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources to pursue her PhD.
They also found the time to get married in Tahoe National Forest last summer. Bringing together friends and family from across the country was a joyous prospect, but the financial aspects of putting on a wedding were challenging. Both families helped immensely, but Emma and Alan still needed to find a way to cover a portion of the expenses themselves. Emma had recently gotten our interest-free Debt Consolidation loan to pay off a big chunk of her student loans before starting graduate school. They were relieved to find out that Hebrew Free Loan could offer additional assistance for their wedding.
“The interest-free Life Cycle loan allowed us to dial back the stress and enjoy the excitement of getting married. We could afford to have a rabbi, include our East Coast friends, and celebrate the way we’d dreamed of.”
Before they secured our loan, Emma and Alan worried they would have to limit their guest list and leave out many of their long-time friends. They were also concerned that having a rabbi officiate would push up the costs too much. They’re so glad they could bring in the rabbi, who helped incorporate their Jewish heritage throughout the ceremony and filled the weekend with symbolism, ritual, and meaningful conversation. Both Emma and Alan look back on their wedding as an event that deepened their connection to Judaism and their Jewish community. They look forward to eventually starting a family and building a life together in Northern California.
