Democrat and Chronicle

Hamilton College identical twins are co-valedictor­ians

Call it Hamil-twin College, at least for now.

At Sunday’s graduation ceremony at Hamilton College in Clinton, two covaledict­orians were recognized. That’s only ever happened once before.

But this was the first time that both co-valedictor­ians played on the varsity lacrosse team and planned to become dentists. It’s also the first time that they had the same last name and the same long, blonde hair streaming over their blue graduation robes.

They are Chloe Chiota and Olivia Chiota, varsity lacrosse teammates, biology majors, summer interns at the New England Center for Children, residents of Southborou­gh, Mass., and, as you’ve likely guessed by now, identical twins.

“They came into Hamilton dedicated and passionate about health care and learning everything they could to get to their chosen profession­s,” said Courtney Hance, director of health profession­s advising. “They did not know what that would be, but in their junior year, after working in hospitals and shadowing many health profession­als, landed on dentistry.

“Driven, committed and thoughtful, Chloe and Olivia dove all in to prepare themselves to be the best candidates for dental school.”

And they are both “very modest, terrific and fun-loving people – and, of course, excellent students,” said Natalie Nannas, associate professor of biology. But don’t let all those similariti­es make you think they are identical in anything other than genetics and college grade-point averages. Chloe, for example, minored in sociology while Olivia minored in women’s and gender studies.

And in the Pre-Health Club, Chloe served as president while Olivia was vice president. But Olivia was president of Strong Girls at Hamilton.

And back in high school in Massachuse­tts, the two didn’t share a gradepoint average. One was number seven and the other number nine in their graduating class. No word from Hamilton College yet, though, on whether the sisters will attend the same dental school or on whether they’ll go into practice together, a much safer bet for identical-twin dentists than optometris­ts who patients might just think they’re experienci­ng double vision from the eyedrops.