If there are records about siblings graduating from the same university at once, the Povolo quintuplets may have just broken them.
On Monday, all five quintuplets walked across the stage at Montclair State University’s commencement at the Prudential Center in Newark — together, as usual.
“It’s a little emotional, a chapter of our lives coming to an end,” said Ludovico Povolo, who goes by Vico, one of the quintuplets.
“It’s really the last thing we’ll do all together,” said his sister, Ashley.
“Without Montclair life would not be this way for sure,” said Victoria, the eldest of the five.
Without the full academic scholarships she and her siblings received, Victoria said, “I wouldn’t’ve gone to college period, and get the experiences I did.”
The Povolo quintuplets, of Totowa, made headlines in 2020 when Montclair State offered them all full rides to college in a financial aid package worth about $250,000 collectively. Because of their good grades, the siblings were all admitted to the university as Presidential Scholars.
The two girls and three boys remain grateful for the chance to go to college together and discover their own interests at Montclair State.
“I don’t know if I would’ve played lacrosse,” added Michael, who said he could talk for hours about the sport and his travel on the university team.
“I was able to get so many different opportunities, especially studying abroad, that would not have happened otherwise,” said Ashley.
Silvia Povolo, their mother, an assistant housekeeping supervisor at Montclair State, teared up as she listened to her quintuplets during a family interview on campus near the statue of the school’s Red Hawk mascot several days before the commencement ceremony.
The first-generation graduates pursued a variety of majors and extracurricular activities while attending the public university.
Michael is returning to campus for a fifth year on the lacrosse team as he finishes up a master’s degree in food science.
Ashley, an English major, received her teaching degree. \She was a freshman orientation leader and held down three jobs one summer. After the pandemic, she said, “I was on a mission to be as involved with student life as possible.”
Vico majored in political science, with a minor in business, and was a leader in his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. He also participated in the mock trial club and worked at a restaurant. He has already nailed down a job in sales and marketing in Watchung.
Marcus majored in business administration and started working full-time as a sophomore when he had a six-month contract at J.P. Morgan Chase and had to wake up at 5 a.m. to make a 1 1/2-hour commute to Brooklyn. He balanced that with online classes and accelerated 8-week college courses.
When he switched to an office in Jersey City, he had more time to make friends. He plans to continue working at J.P. Morgan Chase as an escrow analyst, he said.
“They’ve been good to me,” he said of the company.
Victoria is taking a gap year before medical school, after majoring in biochemistry and minoring in Italian, which the family speaks at home. She works as an emergency medical technician, is interning at a morgue and hopes to become a medical examiner.
“I love crime,” she said, then laughed. “Not in a bad way.”
She’s also a member of the honor society for first-generation college students.
For the past four years everyone but Marcus lived at home in Totowa, which is 7, 10, or 15 minutes from school, depending on who’s driving. (Victoria, the unofficial “spokesquint,” Googled the trip and said it takes 12 minutes.)
Their fellow students were curious about life as a quintuplet. They’re all fraternal, and Ashely described her family life as “a friend group you live with and can’t leave.”
“Exactly,” Marcus said. “That’s a good way of putting it.”
Victoria said she gets anxious when there aren’t a lot of people around, and Ashley said when she would hear footsteps in the hallway of her dorm in England when she was studying abroad, she found it comforting.
Their mother, who is from Italy and had been an exchange student in Montana, described having quintuplets as “crazy, beautiful, perfect, and chaotic.” She and her husband, Paolo, a building engineerfor Cushman & Wakefield, moved to the United States in 1998 and worried about affording five college tuition bills for four years.
When all five quintuplets attended an informational meeting at Montclair State, their mother urged Victoria to talk to the financial aid officials.
Victoria made sure to collect business cards, and remembers when Jeff Gant, then Montclair State’s director of undergraduate admissions, called her and confided that the school could offer scholarships to all five. But, she was asked to keep it a secret from her siblings for about six weeks, until a surprise announcement could be arranged.
“You can see in the pictures that I’m dressed pretty nicely,” Victoria said.
“And I’m not at all. I could’ve washed my hair,” Ashley said, finishing her sister’s thought. But Victoria explained she had to keep the secret.
After COVID made them miss a traditional graduation from Passaic Valley Regional High School, they spent their freshmen year in Montclair State’s virtual classrooms. Moving on from their real-life campus experiences will be emotional, Vico said.
“I can’t speak for these guys, but I made a lot of connections, memories and friendships at Montclair State, but all good things come to an end,” he said.
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Tina Kelley may be reached at tkelley@njadvancemedia.com.
