Indian American twins are Valedictorian and Salutatorian at Connecticut school

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In a rare achievement, Indian American identical twins, sisters Sirina Verma Prasad and Anisa Verma Prasad, have been declared as the Valedictorian and Salutatorian, respectively, of Staples High School, in Westport, CT.

Amazingly, this is not a first for Staples. In 2011, twins Eric and Todd Lubin were number one and two in their class, respectively.

Valedictorian is the student with the top academic performance; and Salutatorian is the number two, in a high school graduating class. They are entrusted with the responsibility of also giving speeches at two separate ceremonies, one for each.

Patch reported the Prasad sisters’ route to the two academic spots in Staples’ Class of 2019 began in first grade, at Greens Farms Elementary School. Their parents had moved to Westport from London, where their father, Gautam Prasad, worked in financial services. Their mother, Nita Prasad, is a professor at Quinnipiac University.

The teenagers praise their many teachers at GFS and Bedford Middle School. “They’re all really good,” Anisa was quoted as saying by Patch. “They prepared us very well for Staples.”

“We learn from each other,” Sirina says, of taking classes together. “We talk about ideas all the time. We don’t see everything the same, so we have great discussions.”

Many of those classes involve science and math. They even audited Authentic Science Research without being enrolled. Instructor Karen Thompson worked with them on their own, and allowed them to sit in on lectures when time permitted, the report said.

Sirina and Anisa also entered the Fed Challenge contest this winter, inspired by their economics class. They had to provide the Federal Reserve with monetary policy for a year.

The challenge paid off. This spring the team competes in the contest semifinals, at the Federal Reserve in New York City.

The twins also started a Staples Science Olympiad team with friends. They also compete on the math team.

Next month, they will travel to Arizona for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, after they topped Connecticut state in the regionals.

The twins will do their senior internships in a chemistry lab at Yale University. In the fall they head off – again together – to Harvard, reported Patch.