{"id":188897,"date":"2026-05-11T00:27:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188897\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T00:27:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:27:37","slug":"twin-sisters-graduate-as-valedictorian-and-salutatorian-at-nations-oldest-hbcu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188897\/","title":{"rendered":"Twin sisters graduate as valedictorian and salutatorian at nation’s oldest HBCU"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHEYNEY, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Tia and Jasmin Criss, twin sisters from Mount Airy, Philadelphia, shared the stage as valedictorian and salutatorian at their graduation from Cheyney University.<\/p>\n

Together, they penned a new chapter in the history books of the nation’s oldest Historically Black College and University.<\/p>\n

The Criss sisters share many things together, such as a love for tennis, restaurants, and movies.<\/p>\n

But the shared honor of representing their graduating class is among their greatest achievements.<\/p>\n

The twins earned the roles thanks to their high marks, community engagement, and overall character. They also credit their mother and late father for putting academics at the forefront.<\/p>\n

Tia and Jasmin each plan to pursue an MBA at West Chester University starting in the fall.<\/p>\n

Watch the video above to see what this special moment meant to them.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Cheyney University, visit their website.<\/a><\/p>\n

RELATED: Mother & daughter share full-circle moment on Temple graduation stage<\/a><\/p>\n

When she was just six months old, Phyllis Parkansky’s mother graduated from medical school. Today, they shared the stage as doctors.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHEYNEY, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Tia and Jasmin Criss, twin sisters from Mount Airy, Philadelphia, shared the stage as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[84192,84191,10605,11412,84190,69,71,70,84188,84186,84189,73605,84187],"class_list":["post-188897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-cheyney-university","tag-criss","tag-graduate","tag-hbcu","tag-jasmin","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-salutatorian","tag-sisters","tag-tia","tag-twins","tag-valedictorian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}