There’s just something about Stanford for Caroline Kushel, BA, MA ’21, and Dahkota Brown, BA ’20 – two former Tree mascots who became engaged this past summer.

“We’ve always joked that, besides Stanford, where else in the world would you have a Jewish girl from the suburbs of New York ending up with this Native kid from middle-of-nowhere California?” said Brown, Tree No. 41.

“I’ll hand it to Stanford every day for the rest of my life,” said Kushel, Tree No. 42. “There’s something about Stanford that finds people and brings them together. The way that we’ve blended our two very different backgrounds into this life we have now is one of my favorite things about it.”

The pair, recently featured in SFGate, became best friends as Brown trained Kushel to take on the iconic role of the Tree, and after three years of friendship, they began dating. In July this year, Brown got down on one knee – in a forest, of course – and proposed.

“Not to be sappy,” Kushel said while laughing. “But we really are each other’s other half.”

Saplings to soulmates

At Stanford, Brown studied theater and performance studies with a minor in Native American studies, while Kushel studied communications.

The pair met over summer 2018 when they were both working as activity coordinators at Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies. However, they only saw each other in passing while working on opposite sides of campus. Brown was the Tree at the time, and Kushel just had a vague idea of the mascot.

Brown heard through some mutual friends that Kushel had joked about stunts she would do during Tree Week, when “sprouts” audition to become the Tree. In winter 2019, Brown asked Kushel if she would be interested in actually doing it, and she said yes.

Brown was impressed as he saw Kushel get hit by water balloons filled with paint while running in a white full-body suit during Tree Week. Brown knew she had what it took to be the Tree and endorsed her.

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“I was trying so hard to impress him because I wanted to be the Tree,” Kushel said. “During one of the interviews, we ended up talking for a really long time – we had similar tastes in music – and he was so funny and nice and had such a warmth about him. I wanted to be his friend.”

The outgoing Tree often calls the incoming Tree their “Tree Child,” and they are expected to spend a lot of time together as they hand off the role, often becoming lifelong friends.

“You keep in mind, out of all the sprouts, who am I going to want to see in 10-15 years at Homecoming, Reunion, etc?” Brown said. “I was like, she is it – little did I know that it was more like who am I going to get to see every day for the rest of my life?”

A blossoming relationship

After three years as best friends, they began dating in winter 2021 and moved in together the day after graduation. Kushel and Brown said their friends and family knew they were heading toward romance before they did.

“We were inseparable,” Kushel said. “We ate every meal together; we went everywhere together. Somewhere along the way, it took the maturity of growing older to realize that’s what love is. That’s what this feeling is.”

Trees often share a distinct sense of care, they said. “That level of community is something that I’ve always loved about the Tree,” Brown explained. “We care about our home, our families, and a Tree is our family,” Kushel added. “We both come from very tradition-carrying cultures, and the Tree is one big tradition.”

A Tree-mendous proposal

After three years of dating, Brown planned a proposal over this year’s July 4th weekend when their families would be together. He rehearsed what he would say for months, but Brown’s mind went completely blank as he got down on one knee. Kushel didn’t care.

“It was perfect and beautiful – exactly what I wanted,” she said. “He’s so funny and reliable in so many ways. I don’t worry that something’s going to go wrong in my life and he’s not going to be able to fix it. It’s so nice to know that someone’s always got my back, and I don’t worry anymore about anything. He’s also really cute.”

The pair just moved to Oakland and look forward to their 2027 wedding where there will be a whole “forest” of former trees in attendance. There will definitely be Tree-related songs played at the wedding reception, and their “save the date” will likely include Trees.

“I love the comfort in knowing that when I get home from work, my best friend is waiting for me,” Brown said. “There’s no way that I could function without her.”