The Choice for Family Trio was Earlham, Earlham, Earlham

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 26, 2009

RICHMOND, Ind. — After only a couple of weeks on the Earlham College campus, three first-year students established a weekly family dinner night. On occasion, the trio uses family sing-a-longs in an Earlham Hall single to de-stress.

The three Hall siblings, twins Conor and Patrick and sister Maura, who was born just 11 months after the twins, make time on campus to study together, eat together and just hang out. 

“We really feel like we are triplets,” Patrick says of the strong bond the three share. 

“I can’t remember a time when Conor and Patrick were not my best friends,” Maura says. “I can’t remember a time when that was not the case.”

The twins agree and say they all look to one another for advice, encouragement and honesty.

“We are very involved in each other’s lives, and we are in tune with each other’s emotions and feelings,” Maura says. “I can tell by the way Patrick walks if he’s having a bad day.”

At Earlham the trio has two classes together, and they live in the same residence hall  — Maura and Patrick on the same floor.

“Patrick and I have roomed together for 19 years, so we decided to switch that up,” says Conor, who lives a floor up from his brother and sister. But, sharing two classes and living in the same dorm was not enough; the three realized their relationship was missing something.

“We found that it wasn’t as easy to keep up with each other,” says Maura. “Before it didn’t take any effort, but being here at Earlham has helped me realize how important it is to me to keep our relationship strong.”

Separation Anxiety on Hold
The siblings realize the possibility that they may end up living in different locations. They thought college would present the first opportunity for separation. And even though they were all considering attending Earlham they kept their choices secret.

“We intentionally did not share a lot about where we were going to go to school,” Conor says. “We did not want our own decisions to have any influence over the others’ decisions.”

They each applied to and were admitted to nine or more schools from all over the U.S. and one in Canada. They were surprised when they gathered to reveal which school they each had selected.

“It was Earlham, Earlham and Earlham,” muses Patrick. “We couldn’t believe it.”

For now, the separation issue has been put off for at least another four years.

“That’s another nice thing about coming to Earlham,” Conor says. “Earlham allows us to ease into that transition. We’re making different friends and becoming involved in different activities, but we are still really close. It will be a huge adjustment when we are living apart, but we will stay close and we will be doing similar things working in similar fields.”

Family Ties
They attribute their tight-knit relationship and their close relationship to younger brother Liam who is still at home in Texas, to several factors. Topping that list is their parents.

“There was always a focus on the family,” Patrick says. “There was a lot of family traveling and they always wanted us to spend time together as a family.”

Another factor was time spent in a beautiful but somewhat isolated area in Colorado.

“There were three kids in our class at our school in Colorado, one other besides Conor and me,” Patrick says. After the family moved to Texas, they shared one car and lived 45 minutes from their school. The trip to and from school gave the three a lot of time to bond and work through scheduling difficulties.

They also played on the same recreational soccer team, which was coached by their father, and at Maura’s urging, all enjoyed riding horses together. They love the outdoors and extreme sports. They admit to being risk takers. Maura doesn’t know quite how, but she would like to fit smoke jumping into her career plans which she thinks might involve creative writing, psychology or criminology. Conor and Patrick recently scaled a treacherous 50-foot waterfall that never before had been climbed. While Patrick is leaning toward environmental science and outdoor education, Conor considers politics, environmental law and psychology as top prospects.

Commitment to Service Learning
All three consider community service work a valuable part of life. Conor and Patrick took a year off after high school for a whirlwind self-designed international service tour. For the first six months after high school graduation, they worked as field managers in the Obama presidential campaign.

“The money we earned from that enabled us to travel to India, Thailand, Myanmar, Fiji and New Zealand,” Conor says. “We did a multitude of things during those five months, but the whole trip was service-based.”

Highlights of the trip included taking part in a Buddhist pilgrimage in India, volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand and working with children in several of the other countries.

“It was an incredible trip,” Patrick says. “It was a privilege to visit these countries and we wanted to give back and show our appreciation for all that we learned and experienced. We learned huge amounts. I think the trip prepared us to come to college.”

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Contact:
Mark Blackmon, director of media relations
765/983-1256 — E-Mail Mark