āI thought, āI have to meet with this punk for the next half hour and try to give him advice?āā said Joseph, laughing.
But that meeting turned into an hour. By the end, she was sold.
āWe became fast friends,ā she said. āHe had a place in my heart from that time forward.ā
That āpunkā was Joey Leveilleāknown for skating down the aisle during the most recent season of Netflixās reality dating show Love Is Blind.Ā While things didnāt end with a wedding, Leveille, a 2015 graduate of SHPās physician assistant program, won over viewers with his sincerity, his quirkiness, and his fuĀ n-loving personality.
Leveille, who lives in Minnesota, said he turned down producers twice before finally agreeing to appear on the show, which was filmed in 2023 and 2024, and premiered in February 2025.
āI was dating someone the first few times they called, but that didnāt work out ā and then the third time was the charm,ā said Leveille, who works as a physician assistant and administrative manager at a same-day clinic outside Duluth.
The premise of Love Is Blind is simple: Fall in love with someone ā and get engaged ā before you ever see them. In Season 8, Leveille was one of a group of hopefuls looking to meet their match through a wall. The then-35-year-old quickly connected with Monica, a 27-year-old digital marketer.
They bonded over a mutual dislike of country lyrics, a shared love of swing dancing, and that The Sound of Music is their favorite movie.
After proposing to Monica during āpod week,ā Leveille met her face-to-face, bounding into the room in his signature energetic style.
āIt was the wildest thing ever,ā he said. āYou know this person ā but you donāt know this person. Youāre connecting emotionally first, then meeting physically. It was like a mind explosion.ā
Compared with others on the show, their relationship was surprisingly drama-free ā until Monicaās sister refused to give her blessing, and she began to have doubts.
On what was to be their wedding day, Leveille rolled up to the altar on his longboard dressed in a baby-blue suit, but Monica ultimately said no. Leveille took it with grace. In an interview, he said they actually had agreed the night before that neither was ready, and the refusal did not come as a surprise.
Off-screen, Leveille is back to work. His appearance on Love Is Blind, followed by talk shows, have made him somewhat of a celebrity.
Ā āThat guy gave me a strep throat test!ā one fan posted online.
Leveille said he doesnāt mind the attention.
āPeople ask me for pictures, and Iām glad to do it,ā he said. āIām an extrovert ā I donāt mind at all.ā
Leveille, who was home-schooled through high school, was a student at a Minnesota college when he came to Rutgers through a summer program for low-income students to participate in research. That experience led to publishing a paper on Alzheimerās disease ā and a meeting with Joseph to learn about becoming a physician assistant.
Two years later, he was accepted into our physician assistant program.
āHe had so much depth and compassion,ā Joseph said. āAt the time, he was working overnight shifts at a traumatic brain injury facility to pay for school ā and still had a 3.9 GPA. He loved working with people and helping them.ā
She added, āSo, the boy with the longboard turned out to be one of the best students Iāve ever met.ā
As for the longboard? Leveille calls it hisāemotional support.ā Skating helps ease his anxiety. And yes, it really was his idea to ride it up to the altar (with Monicaās consent).
Leveille was planning to return to the PA program in the fall as part of a panel of alumni to speak with students.
He might even glide in on his board.
