Few if any would argue that parenting a successful child takes a lot of work, and oftentimes some luck.
That means Lisa and Mike Graham, of Crestwood, really hit the jackpot. Their triplets — Michael, Abigail and Caroline, all 17 and all about to start their senior year at Shepard High School in Palos Heights — all are standout students.
Last year, the trio all were ranked in the top 10 of their junior class. All three earned Honors with Distinction, the highest academic honor a student can achieve in Community High School District 218. All three also are in the National Honor Society.
If that weren’t enough, all of them excel in sports, and all are involved in extracurricular activities.
Both Abby and Caroline are All-Conference volleyball players, and they also played badminton as sophomores. Mike is an All-Conference swimmer.
Caroline and Abby are members of Leo Club and are student ambassadors. They also manage the boys varsity volleyball team. Abby mentors freshmen, while Mike is a student ambassador and plays football and water polo.
What is their secret to accomplishing so much?
“We are competitive with each other,” Mike said.
“But in a good way,” Abby said.
“Our parents are really big on pushing each of us to do our best,” Caroline said.
Like a tag team, they expand on one another’s thoughts.
“Yes, our parents have been very supportive and encouraged us to do what we wanted to,” Abby said.
Mike said their parents got them involved in a lot of activities at an early age.
“We just developed from there. We competed at a young age and that just carried on,” he said.
As for academics, Mike said that certain subjects always came more easily than others. But things changed.
“In junior year, everything got harder. That’s when we started helping each other,” Caroline said.
“If one of us is better at a subject than another, we help each other out as best we can,” Abby said.
They believe their differences make them stronger. For instance, Mike said that math and science are his strong suits but admits he is weak in the liberal arts. That’s where Abby picks up the slack; she gravitates more to English, so she helps Mike out when she can. Meanwhile, Caroline is especially talented at business classes and enjoys marketing.
All three agree that their parents are their mentors.
“My dad, he just always is there for me. He gives me advice and shows me how to do the right thing,” Mike said.
“They inspire me to do what I want to do in life and they are always supportive,” Abby said.
“I say my parents, too, for all the reasons they said,” Caroline said. “I also have to credit my volleyball coach, Dan Grunauer. He sees my sister and me in a whole different atmosphere than my parents and teaches us life morals that have made us better as people. He offers advice on and off the court.”
Next year, when they start college, Mike wants to pursue engineering.
“I am just really interested in it and I have a good time working at it,” he said.
Abby, who enjoys science, plans to explore a career in health and medicine.
“I like working with other people, so maybe I’ll go into pediatrics,” she said.
Caroline definitely wants to go into the business world.
“I’m really interested in Spanish, and I’d like to find a job where I could use my knowledge,” she said.
As for which colleges they may attend, Mike said he plants to go his separate way, while the girls are not so sure. Caroline and Abby talk about separating but they happen to be interested in the same schools.
“We like the idea of being on our own but we’ve spent so much time together, I think it would be hard to separate,” Abby said.
Wherever they go, they believe their competitiveness will follow.
“I don’t want to do worse than Mike and Abby in things, so that motivates me,” Caroline said.
Cheryl Dangel Bartolini is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
