Evelyn Rusita and Armel Kitieu at their 2002 Concordia
convocation and at right, the 2000-01 Concordia Stingers basketball team, with Armel Kitieu seated second from left and Réal Kitieu seated fourth from left.
Evelyn and Armel, who married in 2008, met 10 years ago when they were newly minted international students at Concordia. Their first encounter was in an Economics 319 class, International Economic Policy of Institutions—hardly a topic that incites candle-lit dinners and long walks on the beach. The couple first spoke when Armel was late to class and asked to borrow notes from his future wife.
It wasn’t immediately fireworks and dreamy stares—they started off as good friends. But Evelyn reveals that she couldn’t seem to shake the image of her Economics 319 stud, who also played basketball for the Concordia Stingers.
“We studied together in the library sometimes but there were always photos of him playing basketball and articles about him in the school paper. He was everywhere and very cute,” Evelyn says. The following summer, the two became an item and have since been inseparable.
Armel is now a portfolio manager at Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. in Toronto and Evelyn just began her maternity leave from her job as a project manager for Service Canada. But they aren’t the only Kitieu family expecting a visit from the stork. Armel’s brother, Réal Kitieu, BA (econ.) 01, and his fiancée Pamela, also have a baby on the way.
The two brothers seem to mimic each others’ life choices: Réal was the first to move to Canada and study at Concordia and the first to join the Stingers. Unlike his younger sibling, Réal stuck to basketball. At 6’ 9”, he now plays centre for a semi-professional Belgian basketball team, although he is soon heading towards his basketball retirement.
“I always hoped he would be a professional basketball player one day, otherwise it would have been a waste of heart and drive, as well as height,” Armel says, adding that there was never any competition between the brothers when they were Stingers, “but I was always the more handsome one.”
Réal, who now works in the finance department of a Belgian telecommunications company, shoots back that Armel only followed in his footsteps when he was making good choices. “That’s why he joined me in Canada, then at Concordia, then the Stingers,” Réal says. “Although, I wonder why he didn’t get as tall as me...”
With their baby’s room painted and furnished, Armel and Evelyn had time to reflect on the place where they met. “My favourite memory is the beginning of the school year, when Concordia holds Homecoming. It’s such a celebration and I love the walk to the Loyola Campus,” says Armel.
For Evelyn, the recollection is more bittersweet. “Graduation stands out the most because all my closest friends were there and I knew it would be the last time for a while that we would be all together,” she says.