High School Graduation Sees 12 Pairs Of Twins & 1 Set Of Triplets Mark Milestone

Jun 12, 2023 by apost team

One school left the crowd seeing double – and triple – at its graduation ceremony in May 2023 as 12 pairs of twins and one set of triplets marked the end of their high school days.

The full realization of the rare occurrence hit the graduating class of Vernon Hills High School in Illinois just as the yearbook was being put together.

“We knew we had a lot of twins, but it wasn’t until our yearbook put a little section together, and these guys got their yearbooks a couple of weeks ago, and we realized at that point that we had a lot of twins in the building,” the school’s principal, Jon Guillaume, told Today in a filmed interview with the students hosted by Jenna Bush Hager, who is also a twin. With 377 students graduating, that meant a total of 7% of the class would be made up of twins and a triplet. 

In a surprising twist, Guillaume, too, is a twin. He told WGN9 News he thought “the neat thing about twins, in general, is they can celebrate the uniqueness in one another while also having this kind of special bond and special camaraderie.”

While that special bond tends to keep twins close in their early years, Guillaume told the outlet many twins face their first stab at separation after high school.

“I think they realize at some point there’s going to be this little divergence and oftentimes, the end of high school is when that is,” he said.

Such was the case for graduating twins Lizzy and Eric Eitel, who will be attending the University of Utah and Idaho State, respectively. “I’m definitely for sure a little nervous,” Lizzy told Today. “I might not show it, but I’m scared for him. But it’s OK.”

The school’s graduating triplets will also head off on their own path, with Kailee, Olivia and Ryan Irvin attending Kansas State, Davenport University and the University of Illinois, respectively. 

“I’m very excited to go to U of I next year and do my own thing,” Ryan told Today, while his sister Olivia said they would no doubt keep in close contact. “We’ll definitely FaceTime each other to kind of have that same idea of an in-person conversation, but over the phone together,” she said.

Meanwhile, identical twins David and Jacob Wang said while they decided to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison together, they are set on pursuing their own goals as well. David planned to major in computer science, while Jacob will pursue engineering. 

“We decided not to room together because we want to meet new people, but we’ll always be close,” David told the outlet.

However, for twins Heath and Hunter Field, the idea of being separated wasn’t their cup of tea. They told WGN9 News they both plan to attend Illinois Wesleyan University, as well as room together.

“I think having a twin your first year, knowing someone on your first day of school and living with them for the first year, kind of gives you that safety net and confidence to make new friends and kind of enjoy this new chapter of life,” Heath said.

While 12 sets of twins and one triplet may seem like an unnaturally high number of graduates for one high school year, it’s still far off from the record. In 2017, the graduating class of Illinois’s New Trier High School in Winnetka saw 44 sets of twins hit the milestone. 

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How amazing is it for the high school to see so many twins graduate in one go? Are you a twin yourself? Let us know, and don’t forget to pass this along to friends and family, too!