Holley’s honor grads include 3 sets of twins

Many teachers still have trouble telling sisters apart

Photo by Tom Rivers: Three sets of twins will be graduating from Holley on June 24. Pictured from left include Elise Quincey, Lily Sprague, Sarah Kelly, Shannon Kelly, Ava Quincey and Lydia Sprague.

HOLLEY – Three sets of twins in Holley’s Class of 2023 have been in school together since kindergarten and the group has pushed each other to excel in the classroom.

Lily and Lydia Sprague, Sarah and Shannon Kelly, and Ava and Elise Quincy all have been close friends for more than a decade, and they said their twin is like a “built-in best friend.”

The three sets of twins all have the distinction of excelling in the classroom in finishing in the Top 10 in the Class of 2023, which has about 60 students. Ava Quincey is the salutatorian while her sister Elise is top in the class valedictorian.

The twins, after spending their lives so close, will be forging their own paths this fall and won’t be attending the same college.

“We’re all excited to become our own person,” said Lydia Sprague, who is going to the University of Rochester to major in psychology. “We’re excited to start our own lives.”

Her sister Lily is taking a gap year and plans to enroll in Brockport State College in the fall of 2024, majoring in education.

Lydia said teachers through the years often couldn’t tell her and her sister apart, and will simply lumped them together.

“The teachers have gotten better this year,” Lydia said. “It is annoying when they just call us the Spragues and don’t acknowledge that we’re separate people.”

Sarah and Shannon Kelly are twins but feel like there are clear differences in their appearance. Sarah doesn’t wear glasses and Shannon does. Shannon has straight hair compared to her sister’s curls.

“It’s like having a built-in best friend,” Shannon said about her twin sister. “But it does get annoying when people call us by different names.”

Shannon is headed to Monroe Community College to study to be a dental hygienist. Sarah is taking a gap year before she plans to enroll in flight school.

Sarah said she is proud of all the Top 10 at Holley for pushing themselves to do well in their classes and get all their assignments done.

Ava Quincey is the class salutatorian and Elise is the valedictorian. They will both speak at graduation on June 24.

Ava is headed to Geneseo State College to major in education while Elise is going to Nazareth College to major in global sustainability and political science.

Elise said she is thankful to have her sister as a twin “because she is so cool.”

She said people often are overly fixated on the two sisters being twins.

“Be respectful of their individuality,” Elise urged people when interractign with twins. “Don’t treat twins as a zoo animal.”

Elise also said she is proud of her classmates, and how far they have come as students, especially enduring through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ava said next year will be so different for the three sets of twins as they embark on the next steps of life after high school, and in their new surroundings they won’t be known as a twin.

“It will be so different because we’ve only know being twins our whole lives,” Ava said. “We get to find ourselves.”