Twins are often synonymous with the catchphrase ‘exactly alike, yet worlds apart’. There is a certain envy one feels on encounter with such a pair, an inkling of having missed out on something great. That feeling couldn’t be stronger when it comes to Ishani and Inesha Premaratne, two young ladies who have known each other literally all their life.
Born to Dr. Shyamal and Manuri Premaratne in Honolulu, Hawaii; the two girls are extraordinary, least for sharing the same physical characteristics.

Freshmen at Harvard University, Inesha and Ishani share two very different career ambitions with similar end results-the betterment of humanity. In a way, one could suppose this runs the same with the two sisters themselves, who share two very different personalities but are essentially the same.

Ishani with a passion for medicine, has returned from an internship in Dar es Salaam, Tanazania as a Harvard Institute of Global Health Intern. Inesha is heading back from Argentina, following a stint at a social entrepreneurship firm. Needless to say, their chosen career paths of medicine and international relations don’t allow much room for collision, but they manage to squeeze in some time together.

Diverging paths is something they’ve learnt to deal with over the years. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, they spent their high school years in two different institutions-as Ishani would put it, “it didn’t prevent Inesha and I from growing in much the same way that two trees planted in the same garden might – with roots intertwined deeply beneath the soil, even if the branches spread in very different directions.”

While academically professed, their track record of community leadership and public service is perhaps what eventually secured them those much coveted Harvard placements. As students, Inesha set up a community food bank while Ishani raised awareness and funds for the hungry in their community. Today, that young enthusiasm has transformed into a more concrete one, with the twins sharing dreams of eventually working with the displaced women of Northern Sri Lanka; both girls being strong supporters of women’s empowerment.

The two girls were accepted into Harvard with scholarships in 2011, a year which saw the admission rate dip for the Ivy League school, making competition even higher. Between the two of them, they were offered admission to every single school in the Ivy League-to put things into perspective; the acceptance rate to an Ivy League school that year was a record low at 6.2 percent.
There was a certain amount of trepidation involved in going to one of the world’s top universities. “Getting into Harvard is one feat. Going there and succeeding is another,” Inesha explains.

At Harvard, the two sisters contribute to the university’s premier undergraduate newsletter, The Harvard Crimson. They teach figure skating to those in the community, are involved with the Social Innovation Collaborative (an on-campus club devoted to promoting social entrepreneurship) while at the same time pursuing their career ambitions with a passion.
“You see these hands? They will touch a million lives. I will never forget these words or the doctor who spoke them,” Ishani remembers as she tries to pin down the exact motive behind her decision to go into medicine. “(it was) a stroke of inspiration. These were the words of a true change maker,”

For Inesha, her love for diplomacy stems from many years of Model UN at school. “In leading my Model UN club at school, I learned just how incredibly important ideas and their execution are… I dream of one day serving as a diplomat or ambassador, using my words to confer peaceful agreements and my actions to impact those who live far beyond my country’s shores.” Her love for communication, paired with what she calls the ‘wanderlust’ in her propelled her to choose law and international relations as her area of study.

Of her sister, and the very special bond they share, she’s a little sentimental. “As twins we have always gone on the same journeys together. We do the same things, we go to the same places, we eat the same dinner. I even remember getting off the bus in 6th grade-we were the last students to be dropped off-and thinking that I was so lucky because I would never have to get off the bus alone, because Ishani would always be there.”

Her other half shares much the same sentiment. “Twin-ship means never knowing what loneliness is – this being the gift of a mirror experience that diverges in fantastic ways. I have always had Inesha by my side, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I don’t in fact know everything about her, despite never leaving her side. And that is the best part about being a twin—realizing that there is so much yet to discover in the only person that you know everything about.”

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