Triplets reunite at Quinnipiac, tightening their ‘siblings love’
HAMDEN — As triplets, Jade, Ashley and Lucas Vacco grew up with a tightknit relationship, always doing things together. When it was time to go off to college, they viewed it as a chance to be independent.
The colleges they initially attended didn’t work out the way they expected, and all three wanted to transfer. They said they each did their own research and made their own individual choices.
But when the three came together as a family to discuss those decisions, it appeared they all wanted to transfer to Quinnipiac University — where their older brother, Sebastian Vacco, already had been for three years.
“We all were shocked because we didn’t expect that,” Jade Vacco said.
“It’s ironic because when we were looking at colleges, we were like, oh, we don’t want to get together, we don’t want you to see what we’re doing,” Lucas Vacco added.
Before the trio from Nanuet, N.Y., got to the university earlier this year, they said they wouldn’t want to see each other too often, would want to have separate friend groups and do their own things.
The opposite happened.
Jade and Ashley Vacco are rooming together, while brother Lucas is just a hallway away on the same floor. They said the friends they’ve made so far, they share them. And Ashley Vacco shares a class with her sister and another with her brother.
“It’s not because we can’t stand each other, no, we love each other. It’s just that they were already living with us every day,” Lucas Vacco said.
Even though having all their siblings on the same campus may at times seem odd, Lucas Vacco said the experience has made them all “a little bit closer.”
“I always tell both of them, even though we’re doing our own stuff, I’m only one hallway away,” Ashley Vacco said. “I think it’s sometimes a blessing to have family together because, god forbid, something happens, you’d always have each other.”
Lucas Vacco said Quinnipiac is big enough for them to not run into each other, as they also have different interests. Asked whether they do things together on a daily basis, he said it’s more so about texting each other every day to make sure everyone is doing OK and safe — something the trio called “siblings love.”
“I would say, for Jade and Ashley, they pushed me out of my comfort zone,” Lucas Vacco said. “Sometimes I will say that because it’s like even coming here, I mean, as a person who tends to be more studious and not like wanting to party and all that stuff,” they helped him with some social connections.
As he’s preparing for law school, he said his sisters are always there for him when he needs to de-stress, so he doesn’t have to talk to a random stranger.
Ashley Vacco said she can do everything with different siblings — she said she likes to go to sporting events with Sebastian Vacco, attend library events with Lucas Vacco and spend time in the gym with Jade Vacco.
Ashley and Jade Vacco transferred from Marist College. Lucas Vacco transferred from the College
of New Jersey. The man who guided his triplet siblings to Quinnipiac was Sebastian Vacco, a senior.
He said he also didn’t think all of them would end up at Quinnipiac because of their different interests and career aspirations.
“I played a role in telling them what’s available on campus, how to get involved in student life and the experiences I’ve had,” Sebastian Vacco said. “I’ve only had positive experiences.”
The eldest brother said he occasionally takes his younger siblings off campus because he has a car, and he will hang out with them at hockey games.
“It definitely makes it easier for us to have family time and get to know each other even more than what we do now,” he said.
Although they all aren’t identical, Lucas Vacco said he had people at the college call him Sebastian because they look similar — “they started screaming, yelling, ‘Sebastian.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not Sebastian. I’m Lucas.’”
“People mistake us so much, and it’s just ironic, like I’m a triplet and they think I’m twin with Sebastian even though I’m not,” he said.
For Jade Vacco, she said she always got a funny reaction from professors and classmates when she would introduce herself and share that the four siblings were at Quinnipiac.
Because they don’t look alike, Ashley Vacco said people in her class didn’t know she and Lucas Vacco were part of a triplet, and they were shocked to learn it.
Quinnipiac has had multiple triplets enrolled at the same time. Santo, Mike and Chris Galatioto of Orange, who are identical triplets, graduated from the school in 2004. Another set of triplets that was in the university’s cross-country team, Christina Strauss, Brianna Hearle and Amanda Dobil, graduated in 2016 with physician assistant degrees.
The university has a scholarship called “Multiple-Sibling Award,” which provides up to $2,000 per year in addition to its regular aid package for siblings who attend the college at the same semester.
Jade and Ashley Vacco are rooming together, while brother Lucas is just a hallway away on the same floor. They said the friends they’ve made so far, they share them. And Ashley Vacco shares a class with her sister and another with her brother.