Identical twins, Kristie and Kirstie Bronner took the nation by storm when they accomplished the extraordinary and rare American feat of becoming co-valedictorians for the Spelman College graduating class of 2013.
Known on campus and in academic circles as “The Bronner Twins” and “The Bronner Sisters,” the two music majors represented their famed and historic womens college by posting an accumulative grade point average of 4.0 throughout their college matriculation.
The disarming and charismatic twin sisters said they did not feel that having the famous Atlanta surname amplified the pressure for them to excel scholastically, which many may find surprising. Their grandfather started the world’s largest exhibition devoted to black women’s hair, the Bronner Bros. International Hair Show; their uncle, Bernard Bronner is the founder and owner of Upscale magazine and co-owner of Rainforest Films movie studio in Atlanta. And, of course, they are the daughters of Bishop Dale Bronner, pastor and Dr. Nina Bronner, Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral in Atlanta.
If anything, they are simply joyed that they were able to accomplish their goals of maintaining excellence. “We’re extremely excited, honored and humbled to be co-valedictorians of the Spelman College graduating class of 2013,” said Kirstie Bronner. The Bronner Twins said their goal was just to do the best that they could.
“I mean, our goal was just to do our best everyday. Our best was striving for a 100 on every quiz, so it was just an effort to strive to do our best through day-to-day excellence, praying before every quiz and every test, before we studied, before we practices, before we did homework — before everything. We just prayed to put forth our best effort and asked God to do the rest of it,” Kirstie said.
Kristie Bronner concurred, adding achieving such success was the by-product of setting and maintaining high standards for themselves and using their faith in a higher power as navigational guide.
“We always prayed before we started and studied so we would know what to focus on. Sometimes it’s hard for people to study and focus on the right things. God helped us so much,” Kristie Bronner said. “We definitely could not have done what we did without God. We worked hard with everything that we did with a focus on excellence, so that everything that we give forth is our best. That was our personal standard. We wanted to do well, not because there was outside pressure on us such as, ‘you have to get all A’s!’ We were never told to get all A’s. We were just told to do our best and that’s what we did.”
