Fourteen-year-old Brooklyn twins exceptional in and out of classroom

February 22, 2017 Jaime DeJesus
Share this:

It takes two!

Fourteen-year-old twins Andrew and Anthony Labarbara are already cementing their bright future, not only because of their stellar work in the classroom, but also serving the community.

Andrew and Anthony, two Gravesend residents, are eighth graders at Our Lady of Grace, 385 Avenue W, and thanks to their hard work, have both been accepted into exceptional schools.

Andrew recently received the news that he had been accepted to Xavier High School. “To get into such a great school like Xavier just meant the world to me because I love my education and just want to keep growing and be a better person,” he said. “When I heard that I got in, I was so relieved because there were so many tests and so much stress at the beginning of the year. A lot of my classmates wanted to go to another school, but I really like Xavier because it made me feel at home and I love the education and how nice all the students are there.”

Meanwhile, Anthony recently found out he got into Regis High School. “When I was accepted into Regis, I was so happy that I achieved such an amazing feat and I reached my goal and I was happy to know I worked so hard and that it all paid off in the end,” he said. “One of the biggest things I looked for in a school was great academics and one of the schools that came up was Regis. I looked more into the school and I was very interested in all of the things it had to offer, not just the education but clubs and activities.”

Both Andrew and Anthony are in the Boy Scouts and love it for similar reasons. “It is a chance to learn more about our environment and to learn how to use everything in it and the ways we can make our earth better,” Anthony said. “I also really enjoy fundraisers where we cook for our community and last Thanksgiving we cooked food for homeless people. When I know that I made a difference in someone’s life, even if it’s small, it makes me happy. “

“I really like it because we go camping every month and it feels a little like, not an escape, but just a small vacation for the weekend,” added Andrew. “It gives me some time to get away from stress and work. This month, we went skiing. I had a lot of fun and I just love every camping trip.”

The two are also altar boys and have enjoyed their time performing the duties. “It’s fun, and it makes me happy to know that I am helping the priest and deacon when I’m up there,” said Andrew. “It did teach me a lot of things about the altar like the names of some things and their uses.”

“For my few years I’ve been altar serving, I’ve learned a lot about our faith and been happy to share my knowledge of my faith with the community and church,” added Anthony. “When I serve on the altar, I know that I’m making an impact on the church because I know I’m helping.”

As far as favorite subjects and hobbies, both have different interests.

“I really like science. I’m really religious, but hearing all the hypotheses and guesses about life is very interesting and I like to know how things work and to know what living things are made up of,” said Andrew who loves reading during his down time and wants to be either an engineer or writer when he gets older.

As for Anthony, his favorite subjects are religion and math and one day he hopes to be a surgeon. “I want to be a surgeon in NICU for newborn babies because when I was born I was in the NICU and I want to help other people in same situation.”

Despite their bright future, both students will miss their time at OLG. “I have a lot of memories of the school and I’m definitely going to miss it,” said Andrew. “It felt like a home to me.”

“I will miss it,” agreed Anthony. “It’s been an amazing experience where I met lots of friends and I had a lot of fun.”

Subscribe to our newsletters


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment