2 sets of twin black girls are CPS valedictorians this year — a ‘powerful example’

Like Tia and Tyra Smith, Nannette and Naomi Beckley are twin African American girls from the South Side and graduated this year from a Chicago Public Schools high school.

Like Tia and Tyra Smith, graduates of Lindblom Math and Science Academy, Nannette and Naomi Beckley, graduates of Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep, notched flawless 4.0 GPAs to be named co-valedictorians.

It’s a likely first — two sets of South Side twins making co-valedictorian the same year.

Officials of their schools and at CPS can’t recall another year with dual twin valedictorians but extol the positive narrative provided by the four girls.

“Chicago students continue to break barriers and show what our students are capable of accomplishing,” said CPS CEO Janice Jackson.

“These outstanding grads exemplify excellence at Chicago Public Schools, and they serve as a powerful example to black girls across Chicago and beyond.”

The Chicago Sun-Times recently brought you the story of brilliant twins Tia and Tyra Smith. Tia heads to Duke University next fall, to study statistics, while her sister, Tyra, heads to Northwestern University to study economics, both on full-ride scholarships.

Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times

Now meet Nannette and Naomi Beckley, whose parents are immigrants from the West African country of Sierra Leone.

Nannette is headed to Princeton University in the fall, to study international relations, and Naomi to Yale University, to study law and public policy.

These twins, too, won full-ride scholarships. Recipients of the uber-competitive Gates Scholarship awarded to high-achieving, minority students nationwide, their Ivy League education will be funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“I want to, like, work with the United Nations, or the World Health Organization, so I was really interested in Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,” said Nannette. “And having attended schools that are mostly black and Latino, I love the diversity that Princeton offers.”

Said Naomi: “I wanted a college that was the right fit for me, not just academically, but in the social and emotional sense as well. I became really interested in research after helping with a University of Chicago research project and picked Yale because they have really good research opportunities there.”

Photo by Jean Lachat

The twins, of the Far South Side Pullman neighborhood, attribute their success to academic discipline, parents who placed a high value on education — their mother was in college during their high school years — and participation in college readiness and access programs offered at U. of C.

Both girls applied for U. of C.’s highly competitive Collegiate Scholars Program their freshman year. The program, in its 16th year, immerses high-achieving CPS students in college-level courses, career mentoring, leadership development and college planning.

“It’s a pretty selective program. We annually get about 400 applicants, and admit 50. Naomi made it in; her sister did not. But Nannette was astute enough to say, ‘OK, I didn’t get into this program, can I plug in elsewhere to get the resources I think I need?” said Abel Ochoa, executive director for college readiness and access at U. of C.’s Office of Civic Engagement.

Photo by Jean Lachat

Nannette was accepted into another program run by Ochoa’s office, the 50-year-old Office of Special Programs-College Prep, which also offers college planning and career mentoring, but its focus is immersion in S.T.E.M. learning (science, technology, engineering and math).

“That was kind of like one of the first few times I lost out to Naomi, so I was a little bit sad at first,” Nannette said.

“And then I thought about it and realized we’re not always going to be together in life, and even though I didn’t get in, I should be happy for her, and push myself to pursue other opportunities, because life doesn’t just stop at one program,” she said.

“And so I like looked for other opportunities, and found that other program at the U. of C., which ended up being a good fit for me because I was more interested in S.T.E.M. than my sister,” she said. “In the end, it worked out.”