Chicago twins graduate as co-valedictorians

Twin girls graduated as co-valedictorians from a southside Chicago high school.

Credit: JodyHongFilms/Unsplash

Credit: JodyHongFilms/Unsplash

Twin girls graduated as co-valedictorians from a southside Chicago high school.

Southside Chicago students Tia and Tyra Smith are co-valedictorians and twin sisters, but they emphasize that their similarities stop at high school.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that although the sisters both have 4.0 GPAs, passed 12 Advanced Placement classes and worked as stagehands on school theater productions, they're going to separate colleges in the fall.

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Tyra Smith has a full ride scholarship to Northwestern, where she will study theater and economics, ABC News reported. Tia Smith has a full scholarship to Duke and will study theater and statistics.

The 18-year-old Lindblom Math and Science Academy graduates hope to set themselves apart at their schools.

"Because my name is Tia, a lot of people will just assume her name is Tamera, because of 'Sister, Sister,'" Tia Smith told the Sun-Times.

“People don’t necessarily care about getting to know you, or knowing your name,” Tyra Smith said. “Some people will just know you as the twin. When you’re in a classroom environment and people don’t bother to learn your name, that’s not the best.”

Although they will be going their separate ways in the fall, it won't diminish their connection.

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“I feel like Tia understands me the best in the world," Tyra Smith said. "That’s the best thing about being a twin."

"I was glad it was both of us," Tyra Smith told "Good Morning America." "We really worked together in order to be where we were. It was the last thing we could do together in school before we have to leave each other."

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