Celeste Petrick is from Wappingers Falls, NY. The youngest of 3 daughters, she lived in the same house for 18 years before attending The College of Saint Rose in NY where she studied to be a Special Education Teacher. After several years of teaching in Austin, TX, and Raleigh, NC, she wanted to turn her passion for helping schools into a more lucrative profession and found a technology company called SchoolDude to further her career.

Paul Flieger was born in Pompton Lakes, NJ, but spent the majority of his life in Davidson, NC, and Suwanee, GA. After attending Elon University and continuing his passion for sports and coaching as the Student Manager for the basketball team, he graduated and entered into the world of software sales where he would eventually find himself at a small technology company called SchoolDude.

After a couple of months of passive glances in the hallways, Paul and Celeste officially met at a School Dude company outing – a Casino Night to be specific – and you could say luck was on their side when they finally got the courage to chat (a few glasses of liquid courage may have been involved). After a couple of months of secret dating, they officially went public with their “forbidden love” to the rest of the office, only to be greeted with comments like, “Yeah, duh! You both are clearly in love with each other!”

After settling into their home in Cary, NC, Celeste has moved on to another company, but she is still my favorite “dude”. We both share a passion for cooking (and eating) and often fight over who makes the best Italian food. We love going out to dinner and drinks with friends, traveling, or visiting family at the beach. We have 2 pups (Bernie and Torre – named after New York Yankees greats of the 90s). We recently decided to build a house together in Fuquay Varina to be closer to Celeste’s sisters and parents who have just moved down from, New York. We are equally excited and nervous to go on this journey through life together and hope that we can follow in the example that our parents set for us, of creating a loving, respectful, and faithful family in Christ.