This weekend marks fall commencement for universities across North Texas, and three Denison sisters are preparing for a milestone they never expected to share. On Friday, Addison, Albany, and Avery Martin will walk the graduation stage at the same time at Texas Woman’s University – a moment y ears in the making. The first-generation college students are known in their family as the “A” team, and even their names come with a story. All three were named after Texas towns. “My mom just had the idea, let’s just pull out a Texas roadmap. And so from there, they found Addison, Texas. They really liked that name,” said Albany. “And then when I was born, they’re like, well, this worked the last time. So all three of us are named after towns that start with A in Texas.” The Martin sisters, lovingly known as the “A” team in their family, pictured with their proud parents. Born two years apart, their parents had even planned for a different outcome. “They had a boy name picked out the whole time, and they never got to use it,” Avery joked. Their path to TWU began with Avery, the youngest at 21, who enrolled as an undergraduate in fall 2022 to study math. She says she fell in love with the supportive environment on campus. “I always say it’s like Disney World whenever I talk about it, because everyone’s just so nice. Like you are supported by everyone everywhere you, like, turn,” Avery said. “That’s how amazing it is. I just would rave about it.” Her enthusiasm inspired her older sisters, both of whom were weighing graduate school options after earning their bachelor’s degrees elsewhere. Addison, the oldest at 26, enrolled in spring 2023 to pursue a master’s degree in English, and Albany joined that fall to pursue a master’s in history. From study dates to co-ed softball, the sisters embraced campus life together and relied on one another during tougher moments. “As the eldest, I hold a lot of pride in it, honestly, they’re my best friends,” Addison said. “I feel like I wouldn’t be able to exist without them or be who I am or grow into the person I am today without them. Being able to take this important step in our lives that will dictate the other pathways that we each take going forward — I can’t imagine doing it with anybody else in my life. It’s going to be such a bittersweet moment that I’m going to remember forever for the rest of my life.” Their simultaneous graduation wasn’t planned, but it just happened to work out that way thanks to serendipity. “We all recognize how big of a, like, a part that each of us held in our educational journey; we were always in each other’s corner,” Avery said. “If one of us was having a rough night, we would hold their hand through it, and we would each give each other advice.” TWU plans to recognize the “A” team during Friday’s ceremony. After graduation, the sisters will head in different professional directions: Avery plans to pursue data analytics, Albany hopes to work in a museum, and Addison aims to become an English professor. “To me, it’s very symbolic because you know we’ve always done things together, but we really pushed each other through when things got really hard,” Albany said. “It was just so nice to be able to fall back on them. I always say it takes a village to be able to accomplish something like this, and they’re two of the most dedicated and incredible women I know in my life.” ...read more read less