Twins Gloria Guerrier and Victoria Guerrier are staying side by side as they make their way to an Ivy League!
USA Today has reported that the sisters are set to attend Yale University.
“We’ve been working for this since ninth grade and we dreamed of this moment, but it actually coming into fruition and happening, it just feels so unreal,” said Victoria, according to USA Today.
Prior to the announcement, their school, West Hempstead Secondary School, shared that the 17-year-olds will be graduating as valedictorian and salutatorian for the class of 2023.
“Gloria finished with a grade point average of 105.3, while Victoria earned a grade point average of 104.9,” the New York high school shared on its website.
“Their latest feat is just one of many accolades that they have achieved both in and outside of the classroom,” the site continued. “They are in the top 5% of the secondary school’s graduating class and have never shied away from a challenging course load. Year after year, they have chosen and enrolled in the most rigorous advanced courses that were available to their grade level and excelled in them all, never earning lower than a perfect 100 on their transcript.”
In addition to their stellar grades, Gloria and Victoria are star student athletes, have part-time jobs, and take care of their father, whom is paralyzed.
According to USA Today, the twins’ father grew up in poverty in Haiti but went on to get a scholarship through the Salvation Army and attend Clemson University.
“He achieved so much in America, and his story really taught me how to work hard and to value education,” Gloria said of her father as an inspiration.
During their time in high school, Gloria and Victoria have taken what they’ve learned and turned it into action. When they were sophomores, they entered a Samsung contest that focused on students finding solutions to real-life problems.
“We decided to create our own masks that were biodegradable, effective against the COVID-19 droplets, and also cost-effective,” Gloria said. “After that whole project … researchers from the FDA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology reached out to us and wanted to (turn) our research projects into a larger case study.”