Our Story
Alyssa was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is the eldest daughter of David and Kuei-mei Huang and the boss-sister for her four siblings. She has always had the passion to serve the underserved and a child-like sense of wonder for sciences and learning. She has spent countless hours volunteering including spending time with senior citizens with Alzheimer's and volunteering at an orphanage in Thailand for children with HIV. She received her BA in neuroscience and psychology at Northwestern University (Go Cats!). She ultimately merged her interests in science and helping others by completing her medical degree at THE Ohio State University. She currently resides in San Francisco and is completing her fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at University of California, San Francisco. She enjoys teaching and has mentored a number of medical students and residents.
When she is not at the hospital, Alyssa enjoys running, reading, contemplating politics, traveling, trying new foods, museum-hopping and spending time with her family. She is known to be compassionate, overly-optimistic and thoughtful.
Timur was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. He is the son of Alfia Rakova and Alexander Alperovich. He immigrated from Russia around the age of 14 and grew up in Boston. He learned American customs through watching countless hours of University of Iowa football with Ray, his step father (Go Hawkeyes!). Moreover, he is a die-hard Patriots fan and could watch Brady and the Gronk for countless hours. Besides football, Timur has always had a keen aptitude for computers. He even started a small business fixing computers in his teen years. He went on to complete a computer science AND physics degrees (NERD) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He too had a child-like sense of wonder and went on to further advance his knowledge in computer science in graduate school at the University of Michigan. He ultimately moved to the #SiliconValley and has worked at various start-ups.
Timur is an avid runner and recently qualified for the Boston Marathon. In his spare time, Timur also likes to tinker with his 1980 Kawasaki motorcycle, strategize for his fantasy football team, and travel the world. Timur is known to be very practical, thoughtful and witty.
How our paths crossed
serendipity | noun:
1. the occurrence and development of events by changes in a happy or beneficial way.
Nothing but serendipity could describe how Alyssa and Timur met.
To celebrate the completion of medical school, Alyssa and a few friends took a whirlwind trip to Alaska and San Francisco. Given her robust interest in science, she and her friend, Hema, found themselves at the California Academy of Science Night Life event. While wandering through the live rain-forest, Timur first spotted Alyssa eating a chao-shu bao and primarily wondered where he too could get a bao to eat.
Later in the evening, Alyssa and Hema found themselves standing in front of large dark window in the aquarium. "Hmm, what are we even looking at?" Alyssa said without any care. This is when Timur interjected, "Glow in the dark fish!" Incredulous at who was trying to teach her something, Alyssa turned around and found a handsome young man in a suit. Timur and Alyssa clicked right away. Hema was more skeptical though--thinking he may have intentions of foul play in Golden Gate Park. But her skepticism melted away as the night passed and Timur's friendly demeanor and, more importantly, ownership of a motorcycle came to light.
Alyssa returned to the Midwest and Timur persistently kept in touch. Alyssa eventually moved to Los Angeles for her Pediatric Residency at University of Southern California. Their friendship blossomed into a relationship and ultimately into love.
Though their relationship spanned Los Angeles and San Francisco, they became very close. During this time, they explored cities all over the world together, survived 30 hour hospital calls, survived motorcycle lessons for Alyssa, and drank tons of boba. After three years, Alyssa completed her residency in Los Angeles and decided to join Timur in the Fog City.
The proposal: August 7th, 2016
On one sunny Sunday, Alyssa was finishing up seeing patients in the hospital. As per usual, she was starving and borderline hangry. Timur kindly offered to pick her up on the motorcycle to get lunch together. Instead of taking Alyssa to food, Timur led her to Tank Hill Park. Alyssa (in a state of grump) and Timur climbed up the hill together and were met by a mesmerizing view of San Francisco that spanned from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge.
Alyssa ran towards the edge of the hill and was captivated by breathtaking view. As she turned around to share the spectacular view with Timur, she saw that he had fallen down on one knee. With quick instinct, Alyssa dashed over to resuscitate him. Timur then popped out a wooden ring box. Many tears of joy later, Alyssa and Timur were engaged. They held hands overlooking the beautiful view of the city and the new adventure that was ahead of them.
