From the NICU to HBCUs: Maryland triplets continue journey with move to historic Atlanta colleges

Most parents dream of sending their children to prestigious colleges.

They celebrate, hug and cry as one by one, their kids venture off to the world of dorms, lectures and perhaps the occasional party.

For Baltimore parents Sharnetta Hicks and Tony Hicks Sr., it’s happening all at once.

Their children, triplets Morgan Hicks, Sanai Hicks, and Tony Hicks Jr., graduated with 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9 GPAs, respectively. They have all received scholarships and were accepted to dozens of schools across the country.

In the end, the triplets — who were all born severely premature — decided to stay together. They settled on schools in Atlanta, where they started classes at Spelman and Morehouse colleges on Wednesday.

Triplets ranked schools

Morgan, Sanai and Tony started thinking about what colleges they'd go to when they were high school juniors.

The triplets came up with a joint list, thinking it’d be great to go to school together since they hadn’t done so since elementary school. (The girls went to middle and high school together while Tony Jr. went elsewhere.)

Sanai said she had dream schools picked out in two categories: predominantly white institutions and historically Black colleges and universities.

“My PWI dream school was Duke and my HBCU dream school was Spelman,” she told USA TODAY during an interview on Monday. “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.”

They then shortened their list of 10 schools to five and toured Spelman first. The rest is history.

“Once we toured Spelman, it was over,” Sharnetta Hicks said. “We never made it to North Carolina A&T. We never made it to Tuskegee or Alabama.”

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The financials

Sharnetta said she and her husband tried to guide their children as much as they could but wanted them to make their own decision. Money was a factor, though, and other schools were offering more financial support than Spelman and Morehouse.

So, their parents had the teens apply for more scholarships.

They started a GoFundMe but the students were putting in "many long nights" by applying to scholarships and writing admissions essays, Sharnetta said.

“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,” she said.

She told them it would pay off though, and it did: the scholarship money began to trickle in.

Tony Jr. got $60,000 from Morehouse while Sanai and Morgan each received $18,000 from Spelman to support them over the next four years. The students also earned private scholarships through other programs.

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Math, law, engineering, oh my

Sanai plans to pursue a law degree. She's interested in immigration and entertainment but is "really leaning toward civil rights.”

Meanwhile Morgan wants to become a biomedical engineer. She plans to study biochemistry and complete a dual-degree engineering program, a crossover between Spelman and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“I was really interested in science and math at a young age,” she said, recalling field trips to NASA and enjoying an engineering class. “I'm a really hands-on learner. I like visual aids.”

Tony Jr. wants to focus on applied physics. He plans to become an aerospace engineer and would love to work for NASA.

“Mathematics comes naturally to me and I'm very interested in robotics and aircrafts,” he said.

Moving day

Typically, students aren’t allowed to use moving trucks at Morehouse or Spelman, which have neighboring campuses so close, they're often referred to as SpelHouse.

But since the Hicks family had three students to move, the triplets' father reached out and asked for an exception. It was approved and the teens moved into their respective dorms last week.

The move could have been pretty costly but luckily they could stay at a family member’s house and save over $1,000 in hotel expenses, Sharnetta said.

“That's money we were able to use toward their education and getting them where they needed to be and prepared to go to school,” she said. “Setting up the dorms for the girls was very intense. (There were) many days with no A/C, trying to just get it done but we hung in there sweating and taking small breaks.”

A scary start

Sanai, Morgan and Tony Jr. were born at 27 weeks, with the girls weighing 1.1 pounds and Tony weighing 2 pounds, Sharnetta said.

They were delivered via C-section and doctors found that Sharnetta had a ruptured abscess. She was in the intensive-care unit for about two days after the birth and couldn’t see them until two weeks later.

While they were hospitalized, a nurse suggested their parents take a photo of how small they were so that later, they could see how far they’d come. The nurse asked how big Tony Sr.'s wedding band was, suggesting it might fit around the infants' wrists.

“My wedding band actually fit on Morgan's wrist,” Tony Sr. said. “She was the smallest of the three. It was just amazing to see that and to see them now.”

Because the babies were severely premature and their mother was so ill, doctors told Tony Sr. there was a chance none of them would survive the night.

“God be the glory … they all survived and everyone's healthy,” he said.

Triple the siblings, triple the personalities

One thing the triplets have in common is that they're all strong leaders, Tony Sr. said.

“They all have their strengths, their different weaknesses," Sharnetta said. "They know what they're good at and they encourage each other.”

Sanai, who was born first, is pretty introverted but opens up once she's comfortable with you. Calling her “an observer,” her mom said she likes to scope things out first.

“She's also very artistic and she loves to be creative,” Sharnetta said.

Meanwhile Morgan is the "social butterfly" and is always making people feel included.

"She just loves people and she can engage with anyone," Sharnetta said.

Tony can be social but he takes his time, as well, his mother said. Once he hears something he’s interested in, he’ll join the conversation.

Overall, their lives have been quite the journey.

“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.”

Morgan looked at her brother and sister, telling them with a smile: “Congratulations. We're in college now.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baltimore triplets go to college together in Atlanta