Premature triplets born at 27 weeks are grown up and thriving — and now they are going to college together.
Twin sisters Morgan and Sinai Hicks will be attending Spelman College, while their brother, Tony Hicks, is going to school right across the street at Morehouse College. Both are historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the metro area of Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a promising beginning of a bright future for a set of triplets whose start in life wasn’t easy.
USA Today reported that the triplets were born 13 weeks prematurely. Tony weighed in at two pounds, while the girls weighed just 1.1 pounds each. They were so small, their father’s wedding ring could fit around their wrists.
“She [Morgan] was the smallest of the three,” Tony Hicks, Sr. said. “It was just amazing to see that and to see them now.”
Initially, doctors predicted that both the triplets and their mother, Sharnetta Hicks, wouldn’t survive the night. But those predictions were thankfully wrong. “God be the glory … they all survived and everyone’s healthy,” said Tony, Sr.
READ: Doctors advised this preemie’s parents five times to turn off life support. Today, he’s thriving.
All three had a grade point average (GPA) over 3.5 in high school, and each was accepted into more than 40 colleges and universities. Though their parents wanted them to stick together, it was ultimately their choice where to attend college.
“You’re dealing with siblings who are very unique, they’re different,” Sharnetta said. “Everyone wants to lump them together but they all have their own needs. They all have their own set of passions, goals, [and] dreams.”
Sinai told USA Today, “My mom, when we were applying, she told us to apply to as many as we possibly could so that we could have options to choose from.” But Spelman quickly became the top choice when the two sisters toured it. “We never made it to North Carolina A&T,” Sharnetta said. “We never made it to Tuskegee or Alabama.”
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All three received numerous scholarships to offset the cost of tuition, thanks to the hard work they put in during their senior year.
“They would end up doing four or five essays a day to catch up because they were just trying to live out their life and also have fun in school and do social activities and do service hours,” Sharnetta explained. They also have lofty career goals in mind: Sinai wants to study law, Morgan is aiming to become a biomedical engineer with a double major, and Tony, Jr. is studying applied physics, with an eye towards becoming an aerospace engineer and working for NASA.
It’s a happy new beginning for a family who was told they would never make it here.
“Starting from 30 bottles a day, to 900 diapers a month, 900 bottles a month,” Tony, Sr. said. “To see them just grow up and mature and be individuals and independent and eager to obtain their college degrees, I’m extremely proud of the three of them.”
