ALEXIS-ALEIGHA-CRAYTON-TWINS.JPG
From left, Alexis and Aleigha Crayton, 14, stand in a competitive stance as they pose for a picture just before their eighth-grade prom at their home in Cleveland Heights on May 29, 2009.
(Lisa DeJong, Plain Dealer file)
"Whatever happened to . . . ?" is a weekly series updating some of the most newsworthy and interesting local stories covered in The Plain Dealer. Have a suggestion on a story we should update? Send it to John C. Kuehner.
Whatever happened to Aleigha and Alexis Crayton, twin sisters who graduated from Monticello Middle School in Cleveland Heights then headed off to separate high schools because Alexis was awarded a full scholarship to Dana Hall, the exclusive all-girls boarding school in Massachusetts?
Both Aleigha and Alexis, now 18, are heading to college in August. Both have scholarships. Both know what they want to do with their lives. And both say they made the right decision when it came to choosing their high school.
At Heights High, Aleigha, the older of the two by 24 minutes, was involved in DECA, an organization that prepares students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. She served on student council and ended up graduating with classmates she'd known since first grade.
She spent her spare time working as a cashier for the Dave's supermarket at Severance Town Center, saving enough to buy a car and help pay for college.
She's heading to Wright State University in Dayton to study early childhood education.
After graduation, she hopes to teach third grade and open her own day care center.
"I'm so grateful to the staff at Heights and the help they gave me," Aleigha said. "They gave me a lot of scholarship opportunities and I really do appreciate that.
"And I'm grateful to my family. They really had my best interests at heart and they've always been so supportive."
Alexis landed on Dana Hall's fencing team, traveled to Italy, took four years of Mandarin and received the most improving writing award in the 10th grade.
"I like the fact that I was able to do things no one would expect me to do," she said. "No one would expect a black girl from Ohio to take Mandarin.
"I wasn't necessarily the best Mandarin scholar, but I learned what I could. And I definitely am prepared for the Mandarin that Wellesley offers."
That's where she's headed next.
Alexis has a full scholarship to Wellesley College in Massachusetts, considered by many to be the most prestigious women's college in the world, where she'll major in biology.
After that, she hopes to go to medical school.
"I'm so proud of both of them," says their mother Tera Crayton who still lives in Cleveland Heights.
"I always imagined college and always stressed that to them but I didn't know that all of this would transpire the way it transpired.
"It's a wonderful feeling -- a proud mother moment."