Schools

Twin Brothers Accomplish Four-Year Goal And Are Named Rocky Hill High Co-Valedictorians

David and James Wang set goal as freshmen and now are top students at RHHS.

David and James Wang set a lofty goal as freshmen to be co-valedictorians when they were seniors at Rocky Hill High School. 

The duo, the twin sons of Mr. and Mrs. YingKai Wang, recently made that dream a reality as Principal Mario Almeida announced the two would both be valedictorians at RHHS. 

"We spent half our days at Rocky Hill High School and then went to Greater Hartford Academy of Math and Science (GHAMAS) for the afternoon," David Wang said. "Then after that school day was done, we would go back to Rocky Hill for sports. Our mother took us back and forth all the time so we spent a lot of time with her and it meant a lot."

David Wang will be attending the New York University Stern School of Business in the fall while James will major in Philosophy, Economics and Politics at the University of Pennsylvania with an eye towards law school. 

The Wang brothers' parents moved to the United States in 1992 and the twins were born in 1994. 

"We have a very cooperative competition between us," David said. "We made sure we were taking the same classes and our grades were similar. We also gave each other a pick me up at times, telling each other to pick up the slack and work harder. It worked out nicely."

The twins said they were very proud of their academic accomplishments but there were other things during their four years that they are equally proud of.

They point to forming the Rocky Hill Educational Future (RHEF) Group along with Sydney Greenspan. The group helped persuade voters in the town to pass the educational referendum to reform Rocky Hill High School. 

"Even though we are leaving Rocky Hill we will be taking our friendships with us," David said. "We have a close circle of friends that has bowling nights and frisbee nights. We will also miss Principal Almeida. He is a great guy and has done a lot for us. We will always remember the talent show we performed in and being part of the Mr. Rocky Hill Pageant."

James performed spoken word poetry and then the duo danced to a song that was related to the poem. David has been a Dance Instructor at Backbeat City where he taught hip hop dancing to a 5 day hip-hop boot camp hosted at Backbeat City.

The boys are also outstanding cross country runners at Rocky Hill High School. The duo helped the team finish second in the CIAC State Championship for the last two years. 

"We will have so many great memories of cross country and coach Brian Graca," James said. "A lot of times it would just be us and a few others runners going on an eight-mile run with Coach. We shared those times together. We used to talk and joke and we loved those runs.

"We finished second twice and it was a humbling thing. It wasn't that we didn't work hard enough to win the championship but it gave us a valuable lesson. It showed us that sometimes no matter how hard you work, things don't work out exactly like you hope. That's something we will be able to draw upon our whole life." 

To see a sample of the twins' hip hop dancing, go here. For a lyrical routine, go here. 


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