ANJALI DALAL-WHELAN / ASSOCIATE EDITOR

EMMA PIRHALA / MANAGING EDITOR

Most newlyweds wouldn’t spend their first week married arm wrestling down the halls of the U.S. Capitol, fighting to get a quote from a senator. But for USD alumni Kaia Hubbard ’20 and Luke Garrett ’20, no honeymoon could be more fitting. The couple, both working journalists in Washington, D.C. — Garrett for NPR, and Hubbard for CBS, met at USD. They have been reporting together — both as competitors and collaborators ­— for over seven years.

Kaia Hubbard in The USD Vista newsroom. Photo courtesy of USD Student Media

Garrett and Hubbard’s work frequently overlaps, although not usually as closely as it did one day last summer, just a few weeks after their wedding. Both reporters were at the Capitol, covering the One Big Beautiful Bill, which was being voted on by the Senate. 

“We were chasing this lawmaker, trying to get the quote,” Garrett recalled. “That was what we were all trying to do. And Kaia was a couple of steps ahead of me. And Kaia, again, is more focused on Congress in her work. So I was kind of the newbie. And so Kaia was like, ‘Come on, go get this lawmaker.’ And then there’s this one moment where the hallway narrowed. And I remember Kaia looked back at me, and she kind of gave me this look like, ‘I’m not going to let you in’ … And then I slammed into a column and got boxed out from my new wife.” 

Prior to scurrying for quotes on Capitol Hill, Hubbard and Garrett worked on the same team in The USD Vista newsroom. The two served as subsequent editors-in-chief during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years respectively. 

However, the couples’ relationship goes back further than The USD Vista — all the way to Maher Hall during Hubbard’s first year. The pair first met in Maher, where Garrett, then a Residential Assistant (RA), briefly bonded with first year Hubbard over The Avett Brothers, a folk rock band. While this interaction didn’t lead the two together, they reconnected a year later when Hubbard also became a Maher RA. The two quickly became friends and a romance blossomed. 

“We came from really different backgrounds, but it felt like we had a lot in common,” Hubbard said. “We just clicked. And he was … so energetic and outgoing and was always just wanting to help everyone … So once I got to know Luke, I was like, ‘I’m a goner. This is it for me.’”

One thing that instantly connected the couple was writing. 

“I remember when I first met Kaia I was working on a speech that I was going to give to student leaders,” Garrett said. “It was about my life and my experience. And I remember giving a copy to Kaia and Kaia read it and was able to write my voice better than I could even. I was like, ‘Wow, you really know me, even though I’ve only known you for like two weeks.’ Yes, the connection was kind of immediate and undeniable.” 

Neither Hubbard nor Garrett predicted that they would end up in journalism when they started at USD. Hubbard was studying English and psychology, while Garrett was majoring in physics and philosophy.

Hubbard joined The USD Vista first, working as the copy editor her sophomore year. She encouraged Garrett to join, and he ended up being hired as the editor-in-chief for the next year, with Hubbard as the associate editor. 

The next year, Garrett took another semester of college, graduating in December — a ninth semester the couple dubbed his “victory lap.” During this semester, Garrett stayed at The USD Vista working as the news editor, while Hubbard stepped up to the editor-in-chief role. This put the couple in two of the four executive editing positions on the paper. 

Working together on The USD Vista, Hubbard and Garrett spent countless hours together, along with other student journalists, some of whom they are still close with today. 

“The Vista is kind of like a family, so much time spent [together],” Garrett said. “It’s a lot of work to put a paper out and report while you’re being a student. It’s a lot of time, your free time, you have to give up. So you make it really fun. And so we had just a blast.”

While working at The USD Vista together, Hubbard and Garrett faced a tumultuous news cycle. They reported on significant stories, including the Varsity Blues college admissions cheating scandal. Their reporting even brought them into disputes with USD’s Associate Student Government, leading to torn up copies of The USD Vista and threatened student reporters. 

Their reporting on ASG earned Hubbard and Garrett a second place award at the California College Media Association. On a deeper level, Garrett explained that these experiences in student media served as a foundation for the couple’s current careers as reporters in Washington, D.C. 

“It was an intense time,” Garrett shared. “But those experiences are ones you hold in your heart and ones you keep with you as you continue to face, as a journalist: adversity, criticism, attacks, which, unfortunately, continue. And it’s great to have had a team and a paper that stuck together, through it all. Yeah, those nights, those days, those stories, yeah, I don’t forget them. They stick with me.”

As Hubbard’s final semester as editor-in-chief at USD came to an end, COVID-19 disrupted life. Hubbard recalled when she realized the severity of the pandemic. 

“I remember… being in the newsroom, just me and kind of realizing, oh, ‘Things are going to change a lot and we don’t know how we’re going to do this,’” Hubbard reflected. “But we’re going to do it and we’re going to have to keep producing news for people.”

Normal production of The USD Vista halted, but Hubbard and her team continued to keep the campus informed by posting about the ongoing pandemic on Instagram. 

Garrett and Hubbard rode out quarantine in their respective college beach houses, and turned their attention to finding post-graduate jobs. After applying for jobs across the country, Garrett and Hubbard both landed journalism jobs in Washington, at separate outlets. 

The two returned to San Diego in 2023 to visit friends and enjoy the California sun. After a sunrise surf at Mission Beach, Garrett popped the question and asked Hubbard to marry him in the city where it all began. 

Garrett and Hubbard married in June 2025 in a ceremony in Hubbard’s home state of Oregon. Despite being five years removed from their last articles at The USD Vista, the pair found their time in SLP 403B valuable to wedding planning — even drafting ceremony programs on Adobe InDesign. Multiple friends they made at The USD Vista attended the celebration. 

As newlyweds, Garrett and Hubbard went back to Washington and continued breaking news for NPR and CBS, including their run in at the Capitol. Two weeks later, they did take a real honeymoon, to Spain and France.

Though journalism can be a high-stress job, the couple said that working in the same industry supports their relationship.

“We just talk about the news, of course, because that’s what we’ve been doing all day,” Hubbard said. “We both get it, we’re up to speed, and we’re interested in the same thing. So it’s really nice in that way… I think we can both be more understanding when our jobs get crazy because we’re in the same field. So that works out.”

Garrett reminisced on their early days in The USD Vista. 

“It really is a continuation of the newsroom at The USD Vista,” Garrett said. 

“Good quote, Luke,” Hubbard quipped back. 

However, Garrett and Hubbard agree that their time at The USD Vista helped form them as journalists. 

“You learn the lessons you’ll face in the real world,” Garrett said. “Those battles are still fought day in and day out in D.C. I think back to that time as editor-in-chief when we faced a lot. One of our reporters faced violent threats. They tore our papers up. We had to have security. It was an intense time, but those experiences are ones you hold in your heart and ones you keep with you as you continue to face as a journalist, adversity, criticism, attacks, which unfortunately, continue.”

Today, Garrett and Hubbard take the lessons learned from The USD Vista — and the relationships gained — into their lives post-graduation. Working as professional journalists, the couple continues to bounce ideas off of each other and bond over the news — just like they did weekly in the newsroom.

Hubbard and Garrett graduated from USD in the class of 2020. Photo courtesy of Luke Garrett