'One Out Of 175,000'

How many students can say they've met Oprah Winfrey and had their wildest dream come true on national television? Twins Bethany and Britney Wekesser of Lincoln, Neb., members of the Class of '09, can.

First, Clay Aiken, the first runner-up on the 2003 season of "American Idol," arrived at their high school with a surprise announcement. That led to an appearance May 10 on Winfrey's "Wildest Dream Come True" show, where the twins were awarded four-year scholarships to Baylor from Alltel Corp. The scholarships include tuition, books, room and board, and free wireless service for the entire Wekesser family.

Then, Ty Pennington from ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" showed up and promised to provide bedding and accessories from his Sears Ty Pennington Style collection for the twins' separate rooms in Collins Residence Hall.

The surprise was all the work of their siblings, Jinoh, BA '03, and Dustin, who together wrote the letter to the Oprah show to get the ball rolling. The two had been saving for three years to help send their sisters to college, and even after the show, they gave the twins the $10,000 they had saved.

It was almost too much to absorb. "It was like, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's actually happening,'" Bethany says. "We were just jumping around, screaming. It was like, 'Did we actually meet those people?'"

Britney agrees. "It was like a haze. It felt like you weren't really there at the moment. It was like, 'Am I really meeting the most powerful woman in the world?'"

"On the plane ride back (after the show), you act normal like nothing really happened to you, but then the fact that your life is going to change over the next four years doesn't really set in until you're in the environment. And now that we're in the environment, it's pretty exciting," Bethany says.

But, it hasn't been an easy road for the sisters or their family. In their early years, the identical twins spoke their own made-up language, which they called the "twin talk." Though no one else understood them, they communicated with each other perfectly. "A lot of twins have this when they're younger," Bethany says. "But ours was prolonged."

In third grade, they were diagnosed with a basic learning disability and began attending weekly special education classes. "I didn't want a label to be put on my record, and that was my motivation to overcome this limitation of mine," Britney says.

The girls worked hard, excelling in high school and graduating in the top 20 percent of their class last spring. But they still had another hurdle: They wanted to attend Baylor, which they first visited when Jinoh enrolled. The cost for both of them to do so, however, was out of range for their parents.

"It was just hard for my parents to face the reality that they couldn't do it," Britney says. But their father's belief in having a good education was so strong, he vowed to his girls that he would do "everything in his power" to send them to Baylor, including selling the family home.

He also told the girls to "pray for a miracle." And about one week later, the "American Idol" star arrived at their high school.

Since then, their lives have been anything but normal. With an estimated 30 million viewers a week tuning into Oprah's show, it's not surprising they still get stopped on the street. "We've been stopped in Houston, Chicago, California and Michigan," Bethany says. "It's very flattering. I love it because people actually remember us."

Their newfound stardom hasn't quelled the normal anxieties about going away to college. Both girls worry about time management and making friends. Jinoh lives in Dallas and helped her sisters move into their dorm rooms, and she is close enough to help them navigate the ins and outs of college life.

Months after the Oprah show, it's still hard for the twins to believe their good fortune. "Out of the 175,000 letters that were received to be on this show, it was a God thing that we got chosen, Oprah said during taping," Bethany says. 
Jinoh adds that it has become the family's new motto. "Every time we talk as a family about whatever, we say, 'The Lord can do it. One out of 175,000.'"