Rawls Valentine: Amanda Upton and Jarrod Upton

Amanda and Jarrod Upton were married in November 2007 and were both a part of the first Professional MBA cohort.

Rawls College   |   February 14, 2023

What is your couple's origin story?

AU
We met on eHarmony, but our first in-person meeting was at Brio in Southlake, TX. He asked me out to meet after talking on the phone.

JU
Amanda and I originally met through eHarmony in April of 2007, and I reached out and asked her out and met her for dinner in Southlake. We were married 7 months later. Texas Tech's College of Business launched a joint MBA / MS program for working professionals (week-block format) in the spring of 2008. I remember letting Amanda know that I was planning to pursue this program. I asked her to go with me but let her know that I was going to go either way. Well...we graduated side-by-side in August of 2010.

What was your partner like as a student?

AU
We were both students in the Rawls College of Business Professional MBA Program. Jarrod did the dual degree program (MBA and MS Financial Planning), and I received an MBA. Jarrod was a good student during our time at TTU, even if he did procrastinate a bit and have to pull a few all-nighters :-).

JU
As a newly married couple, I let Amanda know that I wanted to go back to grad school and convinced her to go along and get her MBA as well. We were in the same cohort for the MBA for Working Professionals and took our entire course load together. It was quite the experience and for the first couple of years of our marriage, Texas Tech and the college of business were a significant part of our lives. We got to know the faculty and fellow students and have built lifelong relationships with many of them.

How did attending the same business college impact your relationship with one another?

AU
Attending the MBA program together was definitely interesting. We learned a lot about each other, as it was early on in our marriage. I think it helped both of us to grow and mature in our relationship and also in our professional relationships. He is more of an extrovert, so he helped me be a (little) bit less of an introvert. After graduating, it was like this big thing that we had accomplished and done separately but together, so I think it just added to our relationship (although it was a bit of strain at times!).

JU
When we were in school together, we spent our evenings and weekends studying and supporting each other. As a newly married couple, the experience of going through the MBA program together shaped our lives to support each other through life's up and downs.

As a graduate of Rawls, the education and experience has helped to build our business acumen and courage to look for opportunities in life and business but to also keep our spirit of everything we learned at Texas Tech.

What is your favorite memory of Rawls College with your partner?

AU
My favorite memory of attending Rawls College with Jarrod was when we were sitting in Jim Wetherbe's class one day, and Professor Wetherbe was in the middle of teaching and walking around the class. He walked by us and stopped talking and looked at Jarrod and said, "Why is your hand on her knee?" To which Jarrod said, "She's my wife." Professor Wetherbe just looked at him and looked at me and said, "Oh okay," and just went back to teaching, although, I think Jarrod's face was a bit red for a while.

JU
We have had some great experiences at football games, walking throughout the campus and attending various Texas Tech events. However, my favorite memory was when we were in our graduate cohort executive MBA class together. We were sitting in the front row next to each other, and I had my hand resting on Amanda's knee during the lecture. The professor stopped mid-sentence when he saw that and asked if we had just met and were already dating. We told him that we were newlyweds and decided that we needed to go to grad school for our honeymoon. The professor and the entire class laughed; it was a great memory.