Twin sisters Gloria Guerrier and Victoria Guerrier are named valedictorian and salutatorian and both headed to Yale in the fall!
The seventeen-year-old New Yorkers graduated at the top of their class at West Hempstead Secondary School. Gloria graduated as the school’s valedictorian with a 105.3 grade point average. Her sister, Victoria, graduated as the school’s salutatorian with a grade point average of 104.9.
“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,” Victoria told USA Today in an interview.
While Victoria’s sister told the popular news outlet that she felt “amazing” to have all of her hard work come together.
In addition to their educational pursuits, athletic endeavors, the recent high school graduates are also inventors. The pair entered a Samsung contest to find solutions to real-life problems. In their sophomore year, the dynamic duo focused on creating biodegradable face masks. After the project, their invention got attention and the young scholars went on to co-author a research presentation with the Food and Drug Administration, to further study their invention.
“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.”
In addition to their prestigious collaboration, the sisters also won $15,000 for their school’s science department. According to Victoria, with the money, the pair helped to buy laptops and new science materials for students.
So, where do the girls get their inspiration from to successfully do all that they do? Well, according to them, their father.
Gloria told USA Today that their father grew up poor in Haiti and obtained a scholarship through the Salvation Army to study at Clemson University.
“He achieved so much in America and his story really taught me how to work hard and to value education,” Gloria said.
Congratulations, Gloria and Victoria. We know that your future is going to be incredibly bright!
