Nothing against Yale – it’s a fine school – but Yale’s got nothing on Western Connecticut State University when it come to educating quadruplets.
A local family recently made news when it was announced that Yale cleverly offered admission to four students, all seniors at Danbury High School and all born the same day to Caroline and Steven Crouch.
The Crouch children — Carol, Kenny, Ray and Martina — haven’t decided whether any or all will end up attending Yale, but one thing is clear: They owe it all to Western.
Ha! Just kidding. It’s their parents who owe it all to Western, which is, after all, the place they met in the 1970s when they were both students.
But the four kids also have spent time at WCSU.
Back when they were students at Danbury’s Broadview Middle School, their mother, Caroline, got them involved in the ConnCAP Excel program, which is hosted by WestConn and designed to prepare middle school students for college-bound courses.
“Even back in junior high, they showed the will to go to college,” said WCSU’s Robert Pote, assistant director of the federally and state-funded ConnCAP/Upward Bound Program. “They knew they wanted to go to college and had that will to achieve.”
The quadruplets continued along their determined path by participating in the Upward Bound program, also hosted by Western, for high school students. The program has boasted a 100 percent college acceptance rate for the past two years. Last summer, the Crouch quadruplets spent six weeks on the WCSU campus improving their learning skills. And a couple of them participated in the first Young Writers’ Workshop in the fall.
During all these years, Yale was no where to be found.
“I would like to think that we contributed to their success because we kept the flow of education going,” Pote said. “Sometimes in the summer, students forget some of what they learned. This kept things going for them.”
Hey, we realize it’s not just Western that led to their success. Pote said the Crouch children have worked extremely hard. He recalled one program-sponsored Spring Break trip last year where all the students were splashing it up in the swimming pool — all the students except the quadruplets, who were in their rooms reading and doing schoolwork.
And Pote also gives credit to Caroline and Steven Crouch for encouraging their children to be determined and successful.
“I have never seen more dedicated parents,” Pote said. “They are a close family. They have traveled a lot and are very busy. And the fact that Caroline has returned to school to earn a master’s degree makes her a great role model for her children.”
Still, without Western … Oh, all right. The Crouch quadruplets would be successful no matter what. We are proud to have walked with them and their parents on their travels. However, we want the Crouch quads to know this: If Yale doesn’t work out, you have a place at Western.
Note: In the interest of full disclosure I must report that Robin DeMerell, a writer in the office of University Relations, contributed to the reporting for this blog.
For more on Western Connecticut State University, go to www.wcsu.edu
