A set of African-American triplets from the Washington, D.C. area have used sibling rivalry to their advantage.
The Jones triplets – Malik, Ahmad and Khalil – have received multiple offers from Ivy League schools and are now left with only a few weeks to decide where they want to go.
The triplets attend Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., and have both athletic and academic outstanding achievements.
The student-athlete brothers all have a 3.7 GPA and say the competition among them really helped push them in every aspect of life.
“You can’t let the other people be better than you, because you don’t want to be the worst one, right,” Khalil said jokingly during an interview with NBC Washington. “So, it’s kind of like we’re always pushing each other.”
Malik agreed and explained that he knew if his brothers accomplishes a goal, he was capable of reaching it also.
“If one of them accomplishes something, then without a doubt, I can definitely do it, too,” he added.
Now they have pushed each other to academic excellence.
The boys received multiple offers from Ivy League schools, but have narrowed down their choices to Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
It wasn’t just their sibling rivalry that encouraged them, however.
The biggest inspiration for the Jones triplets is their parents.
They said that at an early age their parents taught them to value education and instilled them with a stellar work ethic.
The news of the triplets’ incredible success comes during a time when Black excellence has finally been earning the attention and praise it has always deserved.
New York’s Kwasi Enin’s inspirational story made headlines after he was accepted into all eight Ivy League colleges.
There was also Avery Coffey, another D.C. student, who was accepted into five Ivy League schools.
A teen from North Carolina, Patrick Peoples, was ecstatic to discover he had been accepted into seven of the prestigious universities, and a student from California defied all stereotypes as he earned a 5.00 GPA and acceptance into three Ivy League schools.
Oakland student Akintunde Ahmad admitted that he is usually known at his high school as a “street dude,” but he now carries around photo evidence of his 5.0 GPA for those who don’t believe he attained such an outstanding academic achievement.
