15 Sets of Twins Are Graduating From One New York High School
A high school in the suburbs of New York City will be seeing double on graduation day this weekend: Among the nearly 500 students in its graduating class, 30 are twins. It's a tight-knit group. Some of the students at Long Island's Plainview–Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School have known each other since kindergarten, their parents meeting through a local twins club. Some even still plan family vacations together.
These days, some of the twins are on a group text chain, which has helped them cope with their newfound notoriety as graduation day approaches. 'Honestly, when we're together, the room is electric,' said Sydney Monka as she attended graduation rehearsal with the other twins earlier this week. 'We're all very comfortable around each other, and we all have these shared experiences, so we're all bouncing off each other. It's really cool.'
They're twins, but not identical. Save for the shared last names, though, the pairs may be hard to spot as they walk the stage Sunday at their high school graduation, held at Hofstra University in Hempstead. The students are all fraternal twins–meaning born from different eggs and sperm–so none of them are identical. Many of the twins are different genders.
That doesn't make the bonds any less tight, says Bari Cohen, who is attending Indiana University in the fall. 'Especially for boy–girl twins, a lot of people think it's just like siblings, but it's more than that because we go through the same things at the same time,' she said of her brother Braydon Cohen, who is headed to the University of Pittsburgh.
Most, when prodded, give a playful shrug at the curious phenomenon in the high school, which is located in an affluent, largely white district about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Manhattan. 'I guess there's just something in the water,' said Emily Brake, who is attending the University of Georgia, echoing a common refrain among the twins. 'We're all just very lucky.' 'I think it's just a coincidence,' added her sister Amanda Brake, who will be attending Ohio State University.
Others acknowledge there's more than Mother Nature at work. Arianna Cammareri said her parents had been trying for years to have kids, and in vitro fertilization was their last option. 'Back then, it was more common than it is now for IVF babies to be twins or triplets.'
'There also may be a genetic component at play. There's a few twins in our family, like I have cousins that are twins, so I guess that raised the chances of having twins,' added the incoming freshman at Stony Brook University, also on Long Island.
Large cohorts of twins are not unusual at Plainview–Old Bethpage. The high school had back-to-back graduating classes with ten sets of multiples in 2014 and 2015, and next year's incoming freshmen class has nine sets of twins, according to school officials.
Among the other schools around the country with big sets of graduating twins are Clovis North High School in Fresno, California, with 14 pairs and Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, with ten pairs. Last year, a middle school in suburban Boston had 23 sets of twins in its graduating class, though that's still far shy of the record for most multiples in the same academic class. New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, had a whopping 44 twin pairs and a set of triplets in 2017, according to Guinness World Records.
Most of the twins at Plainview–Old Bethpage are heading off to different colleges. An exception is Aiden and Chloe Manzo, who will both attend the University of Florida, where they'll live in the same dormitory on campus and both study business, though with different majors. 'We're going to see each other a lot,' Chloe said wryly. 'Deep down, my mom knew it would be easier if we went to the same school,' she added. 'You know, like moving in, graduation, going to sports games.'
Some were apprehensive about living far from their longtime partner in crime. Emma and Kayla Leibowitz will be attending Binghamton and Syracuse University, respectively. The fifth-generation twins say they're already making plans for frequent visits even though the upstate New York schools are some 80 miles (130 kilometers) apart. 'I think it's gonna be really weird because we really do everything together. She's my best friend. I really can't do anything without her,' said Emma. 'We're sleeping over every weekend. I'm coming for football games–like all of it,' said Kayla.
Others were looking forward to getting some breathing room. Sydney and Kayla Jasser said they're both studying fashion design–but at different colleges. Sydney is attending the University of Delaware, while Kayla will be attending Indiana University. 'We could have went to the same college, but we just wanted to be able to be independent since we've been with each other forever,' Kayla said. 'It's good to get out there and have our own experiences.'
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Al Arabiya
12 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
15 Sets of Twins Are Graduating From One New York High School
A high school in the suburbs of New York City will be seeing double on graduation day this weekend: Among the nearly 500 students in its graduating class, 30 are twins. It's a tight-knit group. Some of the students at Long Island's Plainview–Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School have known each other since kindergarten, their parents meeting through a local twins club. Some even still plan family vacations together. These days, some of the twins are on a group text chain, which has helped them cope with their newfound notoriety as graduation day approaches. 'Honestly, when we're together, the room is electric,' said Sydney Monka as she attended graduation rehearsal with the other twins earlier this week. 'We're all very comfortable around each other, and we all have these shared experiences, so we're all bouncing off each other. It's really cool.' They're twins, but not identical. Save for the shared last names, though, the pairs may be hard to spot as they walk the stage Sunday at their high school graduation, held at Hofstra University in Hempstead. The students are all fraternal twins–meaning born from different eggs and sperm–so none of them are identical. Many of the twins are different genders. That doesn't make the bonds any less tight, says Bari Cohen, who is attending Indiana University in the fall. 'Especially for boy–girl twins, a lot of people think it's just like siblings, but it's more than that because we go through the same things at the same time,' she said of her brother Braydon Cohen, who is headed to the University of Pittsburgh. Most, when prodded, give a playful shrug at the curious phenomenon in the high school, which is located in an affluent, largely white district about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Manhattan. 'I guess there's just something in the water,' said Emily Brake, who is attending the University of Georgia, echoing a common refrain among the twins. 'We're all just very lucky.' 'I think it's just a coincidence,' added her sister Amanda Brake, who will be attending Ohio State University. Others acknowledge there's more than Mother Nature at work. Arianna Cammareri said her parents had been trying for years to have kids, and in vitro fertilization was their last option. 'Back then, it was more common than it is now for IVF babies to be twins or triplets.' 'There also may be a genetic component at play. There's a few twins in our family, like I have cousins that are twins, so I guess that raised the chances of having twins,' added the incoming freshman at Stony Brook University, also on Long Island. Large cohorts of twins are not unusual at Plainview–Old Bethpage. The high school had back-to-back graduating classes with ten sets of multiples in 2014 and 2015, and next year's incoming freshmen class has nine sets of twins, according to school officials. Among the other schools around the country with big sets of graduating twins are Clovis North High School in Fresno, California, with 14 pairs and Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, with ten pairs. Last year, a middle school in suburban Boston had 23 sets of twins in its graduating class, though that's still far shy of the record for most multiples in the same academic class. New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, had a whopping 44 twin pairs and a set of triplets in 2017, according to Guinness World Records. Most of the twins at Plainview–Old Bethpage are heading off to different colleges. An exception is Aiden and Chloe Manzo, who will both attend the University of Florida, where they'll live in the same dormitory on campus and both study business, though with different majors. 'We're going to see each other a lot,' Chloe said wryly. 'Deep down, my mom knew it would be easier if we went to the same school,' she added. 'You know, like moving in, graduation, going to sports games.' Some were apprehensive about living far from their longtime partner in crime. Emma and Kayla Leibowitz will be attending Binghamton and Syracuse University, respectively. The fifth-generation twins say they're already making plans for frequent visits even though the upstate New York schools are some 80 miles (130 kilometers) apart. 'I think it's gonna be really weird because we really do everything together. She's my best friend. I really can't do anything without her,' said Emma. 'We're sleeping over every weekend. I'm coming for football games–like all of it,' said Kayla. Others were looking forward to getting some breathing room. Sydney and Kayla Jasser said they're both studying fashion design–but at different colleges. Sydney is attending the University of Delaware, while Kayla will be attending Indiana University. 'We could have went to the same college, but we just wanted to be able to be independent since we've been with each other forever,' Kayla said. 'It's good to get out there and have our own experiences.'
Arab News
11-06-2025
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Child labor ‘may continue for centuries at current pace'
NEW YORK: Nearly 138 million children were still working in the world's fields and factories in 2024, the UN said on Wednesday, warning that given the slow pace of progress, eliminating child labor could be delayed by 'hundreds of years.' Ten years ago, upon adopting the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, the world's countries set themselves the ambitious target of putting an end to child labor by 2025. 'That timeline has now come to an end. But child labor has not,' UNICEF and the International Labor Organization said in a joint report. Last year, according to data published every four years, 137.6 million children aged 5-17 were working, or around 7.8 percent of all children in that age group. The figure is equivalent to twice the total population of France. Last year, 137.6 million children aged 5-17 were working, or around 7.8 percent of all children in that age group. The figure is equivalent to twice the total population of France. This nevertheless represents a drop since 2000, when 246 million children were forced to work, often to help their impoverished families. After a worrying rise between 2016 and 2020, the trend has now reversed, with 20 million fewer children working in 2024 than four years prior. 'Significant progress' has been recorded in reducing the number of children forced into labor, UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said. 'Yet far too many children continue to toil in mines, factories, or fields, often doing hazardous work to survive.' According to the report, nearly 40 percent of the 138 million child laborers were employed in 2024 doing particularly hazardous work 'likely to jeopardize their health, safety, or development.' Despite some rays of hope, 'we must not be blindsided by the fact that we still have a long way to go before we achieve our goal of eliminating child labor,' ILO Director-General Gilbert Houngbo said. At the current rate of reduction, 'it will take hundreds of years,' said UNICEF expert Claudia Cappa. Even if countries quadruple the pace of progress recorded since 2000, 'we will already be in 2060,' she added. Progress for the youngest children is particularly slow, the report found. Last year, nearly 80 million children aged five to 11 were working — about 8.2 percent of all children in that age group. And yet the societal elements that reduce child labor are well-known, according to Cappa. One of the main factors, free compulsory education, not only helps minors escape child labor, but also protects children from vulnerable or indecent conditions of employment when they grow up, she said. Another, she added, is 'universalizing social protection' as a way to offset or ease burdens on families and vulnerable communities. But global funding cuts 'threaten to roll back hard-earned gains,' UNICEF's Russell said. According to the report, agriculture is the sector making the most use of child labor (61 percent of all cases), followed by domestic work and other services (27 percent) and industry (13 percent, including mining and manufacturing). Sub-Saharan Africa remains the hardest hit, with around 87 million child laborers. Asia-Pacific has seen the greatest progress, with the number of working children falling from 49 million in 2000 to 28 million in 2024.
Arab News
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Media groups urge Israel to allow Gaza access for foreign journalists
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