Given up for adoption but set for success
Up against the odds since birth, these Durban twins are maths whizzes, writes Helen Grange
IDENTICAL twins Sabrina and Jacquiline Isaac, just turned sweet 16, had a rough start in life. Given up for adoption by their mother when they were tiny babies, and having lost their dad five years ago, they’ve been raised by their aunt and grandparents in a flat in Umbilo, Durban.
The twins have faced challenges, personal and financial, that no children should ever face, and yet today, they’ve proven themselves to be maths and science geniuses, with sights set on the best UK universities to launch their careers.
The Isaac twins made it to the preliminary rounds of the 2017 Nickelodeon
Genius quiz show, in which trios of brainiacs aged 11-16 (grades 6-10) from all over the country test their maths and science skills against the best.
Although they never made it to the regional heats, just getting to this level requires an excellent grasp of the maths and science curriculum, as well as astonishing speed and precision in answering complex maths and science questions.
The Isaac twins have always shown a talent for these crucial subjects. “From Grade 1 they were brilliant at maths, and even though they were in separate classes, they got exactly the same marks,” says Natalie Isaac. She was in matric when the twins were born, but with her parents decided to adopt them, in the face of fostering them to strangers as the only alternative.
Their troubled story is one of victory against the odds, a heartening example of how hard work can elevate people out of their circumstances and allow them to reach for their dreams.
They were born premature, at only 28 weeks, and spent three months in hospital fighting to survive.
“They didn’t even know how to drink milk. We had to dip a cotton bud in milk to feed them,” says Natalie.
School work was a breeze from the beginning, however. The twins started school at Glenwood Primary, where they were both prefects, and they’re now in Grade 10 at Brighton Beach Senior Primary.
“I have never had to push them. They’ve always just got on with their studying themselves.
“Even on a Sunday, they’re up at 7am to do their homework. One day I saw Jacquiline crying, and it was over her mark for natural science. She got 95% but was aiming for 100%!” says Natalie.
Jacquiline is more talkative than her sister, and they have distinctly different personalities, but it is near impossible to tell them apart physically.
“I’m quite practical. Sabrina is more girly. We do have our arguments, but we’re inseparable, even to the point where it’s hard to do our homework separately,” says Jacquiline.
Their biological parents have never played a significant role in the twins’ lives – their mother is remarried with two more children, and has had very little to do with them after giving them up for adoption soon after they were born.
Initially the girls were being fostered out, but the prospect of them being separated compelled Natalie and their grandparents to embrace the responsibility for bringing them up, even though money has always been tight.
Also, their granddad is now 75, and their granny is a cancer patient, says Natalie, so challenges within the family remain tough.
“The court agreed to give my parents guardianship, and the judge even commented at the time that these two girls will be very special one day,” recalls Natalie.
“They come from a humble home, and they know that I may not always be able to provide for them, as I also have a daughter of my own. They’re very aware of the need to work hard to secure their futures, and they excel in all their subjects. They’re all-rounders. I’m so proud of them,” she says.
The first sign that the Isaac twins were mathematically inclined was their interest in number and shape games when they were toddlers. “It’s fun for us, and it helps to bond us as sisters,” says Sabrina.
Maths and science “make the world a more interesting place,” adds Jacquiline. “You get to understand things... You understand the maths that goes into engineering a structure like Mandela Bridge, for example. You know why a leaf is green, and what chemical processes are going on inside it. The world makes logical sense if you understand it in this way,” she says.
Like many children with an aptitude for maths, the Isaac twins are chess whizz-kids as well.
“We play chess every day, and we’re also learning French,” says Jacquiline.
They’re homebodies, they admit, and prefer to socialise with their family than go out to friends’ parties. At weekends, they enjoy going shopping with their aunt, either at Gateway or Pavillion mall. “I love shopping for shoes, my sister prefers to go to movies. She’s more environmentally conscious,” says Jacquiline.
As to the future, Jacquiline wants to be a vehicle engineer – “I get excited about cars and how they work,” she says – and Sabrina is hoping to become a chartered accountant.
“I was looking at Wits university, but also at Cambridge and Oxford universities. I looked at Princeton in the US, but I think the UK courses are a better fit for what we want to do,” says Jacquiline.
Natalie Isaac simply smiles when she thinks about her brilliant nieces. “I love them, and I admire them. They are so grounded. They know the value of hard work, and they’re hungry to get to the top.”
The2017 Nickelodeon Genius quiz show airs on Fridays at 3pm on NickToons (DStv channel 308). The finals will air in June.