Watch Erin and Ben Napier Revisit the College Where They Fell in Love onHome Town(Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jones College is a special place forErin and Ben Napier— it’s where they fell in love as students in 2004.

“This is where we met,” Erin says of their alma mater, formerly known as Jones County Junior College, which is about 13 minutes from where they reside in Laurel, Miss. “We had our first date in the student union. Everyone on both sides of our family went to school here.”

The project, which Erin calls a “homecoming” for the couple, involves restoring a house on campus for two other alums, Ginny and Jon Ryan.

“We’ve been talking to our old friends from college,” Ben says. “They’re going to be involved in this.”

“We get to time travel,” Erin adds. “We get to be 19 and 21-year-old Erin and Ben again.”

Ben is particularly enthusiastic about “going back in time but also contributing to the future at Jones.”

Ginny and Jon Ryan are newlyweds who graduated from Jones in 2019 and 2017, respectively.

They’ve been given the opportunity to move into the Old President’s Home, which is one of the original buildings on campus, and was constructed in 1947. It’s now being used as faculty housing, and Jon Ryan is eligible to live there as the college president’s chief of staff.

“Ginny and Jon Ryan loved going to school at Jones, and for them, living in this house is going to be part of their mission to build community and connection,” Erin explains, adding, “That is such the Jones culture.”

Ginny says the couple’s biggest must-haves for the space are a music room and a functional kitchen.

“I want this house to feel like a home,” she says.

Erin and Ben have previously reminisced about when their paths first crossed at Jones.

“I rememberseeing Erin the first week of school,” Ben told PEOPLE. “She was walking across the student union, and she had a pixie haircut. I didn’t know what a pixie cut was at the time, but I knew I liked it.”

The couple, who tied the knot in 2008 and now have two children together, 6-year-old Helen and 2-year-old Mae, celebratedtheir 15th wedding anniversaryin November.

“I sometimes think of all the people in the world and how the earth is just this tiny dusty speck in the universe,” Erin wrote in anInstagramtribute. “And somehow, we managed to find each other.”

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“Thank you, Lord, for 15 years in a marriage that feels like home and comfort and assurance and strength and LOVE,” the post continued. “We are so lucky to have found each other young and grown up around each other, forming these identities. I love you,@scotsman.co. 🥹❤️”

source: people.com