Wedding Bells for Kelsey BY EMMA SHAINWALD ‘20, APIA major Staff Writer
B
ennming “Benny” Zhang is a well known name on campus. Like a local celebrity to many of us, he graduated as a self-design Asian & Pacific Islander American studies major in 2016 and has become a longtime supporter of the program since. It’s only fitting that Zhang wrote his honors thesis on Arthur Matsu. Both have carved out their own legacies at William and Mary, Matsu as a star football player and the first Asian American on campus, and Zhang as the youngest and first Asian American council member ever elected in Williamsburg. Now, there is cause for new celebrations as we announce Zhang’s recent marriage to Kelsey Zhang. Thank you for taking the time to speak with Art & Hatsuye. We’re so excited to congratulate you and hear more about your wedding. Can you share the story of how you two met? Kelsey Zhang: I had a crush on him when we started law school, but I was way too shy to ever make a move. He noticed me at the end of the spring semester of our first year and we met at a Christian Legal Society Bible study. We became good friends for about 7 months and then started dating in the fall. How did the proposal happen? Benny Zhang: We knew we were going to get engaged before spring break. In the last week leading up to spring break, Kelsey knew one of those days was it. We shared a Google calendar together, so I blocked off a random time 18 Art & Hatsuye
every day and convinced her to think it was going to be at the latter half of the week. Actually, I proposed to her that Monday. That Monday, I took her to the same table at Aromas where we had our first coffee date, and took her on a route to the big oak tree in Colonial Williamsburg. One of our classmates hid in a bush and captured the video and pictures when I dropped to one knee and proposed. How did your families react to the proposal? KZ: Very supportive! Benny was really good about looping in my family to the whole process, so they felt like they were gaining a son. I think one of the
best signs of support was from my 91-year-old grandfather. He is very protective of his granddaughters, but when we called right after Benny had proposed, he was so excited and told Benny that he loved him. What have you enjoyed most about seeing your families coming together and building relationships with one another? BZ: Everyone got along really easily. Both our moms, who have big personalities in their own rights, got along the best. It’s been cool to see how similar their personalities are, notwithstanding sociocultural differences.
