As Lehman students head
back to campus for the fall semester,
the community has
one extra reason to celebrate.
Two former students recently
got engaged in a surprise
proposal outside the campus
building they once shared a
class in.
Giancarlo Paternoster, 27,
proposed to his girlfriend Julia
Djokic, 26, in front of Davis
Hall on Aug. 19. The two
had bonded while taking an
organic chemistry course the
college offers to students preparing
for careers in health
professions.
Paternoster is a fi rst-year
medical student at Albert
Einstein College of Medicine,
while Djokic is a fi rst-year student
at NYU College of Dentistry.
With help from their former
instructor Sharif Elhakem,
Lehman College’s chief laboratory
technician, Paternoster
tricked Djokic into thinking
she’d been asked to return to
campus to speak to a pre-dental
student group. Instead, Elhakem
led her to Davis Hall,
where she found Paternoster
with a bouquet of roses, a sparkling
diamond ring, and a lifechanging
question. Their big
moment came roughly two
years after they took their fi -
nal exams and completed their
organic chemistry class.
“We fell in love here, in this
building,” Paternoster said
standing outside Davis Hall.
“This is really where we laid
the foundation for our relationship.”
Paternoster and Djokic initially
met in February 2018
while taking a biology course
at Purchase College, SUNY. As
the end of the semester neared,
they discovered that they
needed to take organic chemistry
as a prerequisite for dental
and medical school and discussed
possible options. Each
decided to take the summer
class at Lehman, Djokic said.
However, Djokic hails from
Somers, about 35 miles from
the Bronx, and she doubted
she could make the trek to
campus. So Paternoster, who
lives in Scarsdale, stepped in
with a fi x.
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“As he usually does,
Giancarlo came up with a solution
to make my life easier,
which was to drive to his house
each morning where we would
then take his car and drive the
fi nal 20 minutes to Lehman together,”
Djokic said.
The two initially considered
themselves good friends,
but after a summer of teaming
up to prepare for exams and
lab assignments they realized
there was something special
about their relationship and
started dating that fall.
To others, however, their
personal chemistry was apparent
both inside and outside
the lab.
“I could see the spark
there three years ago,” Elhakem
said. “They were becoming
closer in their friendship
and studying together
and helping each other out
in the course … I knew, with
time, something might happen.”
With their engagement
Two former Lehman College students, Giancarlo Paternoster and Julia
Djokic, get engaged on campus on Aug. 19, 2021.
Photo courtesy Lehman College
at Davis Hall, the couple has
new reason to come back and
visit the campus. Both had already
felt a strong connection
to the College.
“I absolutely loved my experience
at Lehman,” Djokic
said. “The staff I met were
incredibly kind, the students
were all hard-working, and
there was a warm feeling of
camaraderie amongst them.
Even though I was only at
Lehman for a short time, I felt
very at home there.”
-Bronx Times
Ex-Lehman students fi nd
love despite pandemic
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718-892-8997
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September 13, 14, 15
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Late Registration:
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When?
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esquina de Tremont y
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