“We got this feeling that UBC is an awesome place with the right energy.”
No one living in the Pozo household expected Natalie, Joe and Lindsey, 18-year-old triplets from Portland, Oregon, to stick together once they graduated from high school.
The triplets run on different schedules, have separate groups of friends and have their own interests. Joe works hard, has an active social life and keeps busy with golf, baseball and basketball. Natalie loves to paint, recently took up long boarding and excels at math. Lindsey is a gifted photographer, has been dedicated to the piano since Grade 2 and now teaches it too. Both females are also heavily involved in volunteer work, and are members of the youth advisory committee for Tualatin, the city just outside of Portland where the Pozo’s live.
“We had no intention of going to university together,” says Lindsey, who along with her brother and sister will be starting first year at UBC’s Vancouver campus this September.
Knowing they wanted to move out of Oregon but stay in the Pacific Northwest, the family travelled up and down the coast visiting schools. They decided to take a peek at UBC, after speaking to a recruiter at a college fair. When all three Pozos chose UBC, everyone was surprised.
“We got this feeling that UBC is an awesome place with the right energy,” says Joe.
Mom Judy was thrilled with the decision. Not only is it easier to keep on top of registering for classes, residence applications and payment deadlines for only one university, but she also has a sentimental tie to the school.
Her father Denis Archibald, the triplets’ grandfather, is a UBC alumnus (1958). He and Judy’s mother lived in Vancouver while he completed an electrical engineering degree. Later, Judy’s father was instrumental in developing a technology to divert missiles during President Lynden B. Johnson’s presidency.
“UBC was a big part of him doing well in life,” says Judy. “There was a lot of praise for the university and for Vancouver.”
“Whenever we visit family, they tell us stories about him, and how he was such a great person. It’s nice to know that he went to the same school that we are going to,” said Lindsey.
In September, Lindsey will be starting a Human Kinetics program, with aspirations of becoming an occupational therapist. Natalie is enrolled in the Co-ordinated Arts’ Individual and Society program that focuses on economics and psychology. Joe is heading into the Wood Products Processing (WPP) program in the Faculty of Forestry
“I was supposed to do science, and I was on campus looking for the building where I had to go to register for classes. Instead, I stumbled into the wood products processing plant. They gave me a tour and I realized WPP combines what I was really looking for: science and business.”
The siblings are not planning to live together, or even in the same residence. They want to make their own friends, but know they can rely on family.
“If we need to talk to someone, we’re in the same place,” says Natalie. “We could have gone so far away from each other.”
The size of UBC allows the triplets to go to school together, but have their own identities.
“There will be so many people to meet, so many people to be friends with. It’s a new chapter,” says Natalie.
Natalie, Lindsey and Joe’s father Steve, their 13-year-old sister Mandy and Judy are all making the trek to Vancouver to say goodbye in September. They’ll be missed at home, but Judy is happy her children will have the chance to live in Canada.
“I want my kids to embrace Canada and Canadian heritage. It’s such a wonderful part of the world.”
