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SALT LAKE CITY — Three Utah brothers have accomplished something few others can claim: They all graduated from Westminster college on the same day, with the same degree, and brotherly love has played a big role in their college experience.
College graduation is always a big occasion — multiply it by three for the Wilkinson family. Ben, Joe and Sam have all earned degrees in economics.
"Well, really, it was all about our parents, you know," Sam Wilkinson said. "We wanted to save them time. We didn't want them to have to go to three different commencements."
That sense of humor was just one of the attributes needed to survive undergraduate life with competitive brothers.
"When we say competitive, it wasn't anything fierce," Joe Wilkinson said. "It was very much we wanted to be the best, and all of us wanted to be the best. But if it so happened that one of the other ones did better, then you were happy for them."
The sheer presence of their siblings also helped them in school.
We wanted to save them time. We didn't want them to have to go to three different commencements.
–Sam Wilkinson
"We can take what we learned in class, bring it home and just analyze it together and discuss it and debate it and really break it down and develop a deeper understanding, because we have people to bounce it off."
Ben is Student Body President, Sam is Vice President. How they ended up that way could only happen between brothers: Sam ran for president and lost, and Ben ran for Vice president and won, and served with his brother's competitor.
"Some events happened and he left the office, so I stepped up as president and then I selected Sam as the vice president," Ben Wilkinson said.
Ben wants to be an entrepreneur. Joe is already working in Montreal, and Sam joined a school improvement network. Their degrees and relationship serve them well.
"That's one of the great things about a solid education," Sam Wilkinson said. "I don't know if any of us are going to be using economic models in our day-to-day jobs, but we all learned how to think critically, and how to solve problems."
The Wilkinsons were invited to sit by the college President's wife during graduation ceremonies.
