TORONTO, June 17, 2011 – Graduating student Maria Salcedo had more than one reason to celebrate her walk across the stage at York’s Spring 2011 Convocation ceremony on Friday. 

Salcedo was about to receive her undergraduate degree from York’s Faculty of Education with a major in kinesiology and health science. What was missing, however, was her boyfriend Alex Vasquez. “We came together and I was looking for him in the audience.” But she couldn’t locate him. “I was texting him, wondering where he was.”

She didn’t have to wait long to find out. As Salcedo crossed the stage as a new graduate to shake hands with York Chancellor Roy McMurtry and President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri, Vasquez appeared from the wings, threw off the gown he was using as a disguise and bent down on one knee in front of her.

“I was just so ecstatic,” she said. “I thought, 'what are you doing here [onstage]?'”

With a ring in one hand and a microphone in the other, Vasquez told Salcedo that he couldn’t ever imagine being without her. “Love of my life. I thank God every single day that he has blessed me with the most beautiful woman I could ever imagine being with. I love you with all my heart. You stole me with the first kiss. Will you marry me?”

Salcedo said later she couldn’t hear a word of what Vasquez was saying because of the loud cheering coming from her classmates, but knew what was going on and nodded a tearful yes. “I knew when he stopped talking that was when I should say yes,” she said. “It was a complete surprise.”

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