Brothers offered 48 acceptances, $3.58M in scholarship money




By Erin Stock • The Birmingham News • May 24, 2008


BIRMINGHAM -- Penn State. The University of Chicago. Cornell. The University of Georgia. Johns Hopkins.


Logan Dawson stopped. He thought for a second. After naming eight schools, he turned to one of his high school administrators.

"Do you have the whole list?" he asked. "I can't pull it out of my brain right now."

That may be because the 17-year-old's list of college acceptances is 26 schools long. His twin brother's tally is almost as high -- Ryan Dawson opened 22 congratulatory letters this year inviting him to campuses across the country.

Along with those acceptances, the brothers received a combined $3.58 million in scholarship offers, besides $67,000 in outside scholarships. The most any single Jefferson County schools student had ever been awarded was about $820,000, according to a schools spokeswoman.

"I'm happy for them, that the hard work they've put into their education -- I'm happy to see them get results," said their mother, Lana Dawson, an auditor for the city of Birmingham who raised her twin sons as a single mom.

She watched Thursday night as her only children walked across the stage as honor graduates of the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School. Logan and Ryan, with respective 4.6 and 4.5 GPAs and 33 and 32 ACT scores, were ranked in the top 20 of their class. They both are National Achievement, Coca-Cola and Elks scholars.

The Dawsons applied to more than 50 schools combined because of their academic interests, finances and possible desire to swim in college. It was important to their mother that the twins have options to attend schools they wanted to attend.

After the 1998 tornado devastated Jefferson County, Logan decided he wanted to be a meteorologist. He needed to find a college with a strong meteorology program. His love for geography was evident early on.

At age 4, he got his first globe. He reads atlases for fun.

"Most of them are pretty torn up, from me falling asleep on them," Logan said.

Ryan, who has decided to study mechanical and computer engineering, was building airplanes out of paper at an early age. His wish list for Christmas often included the more sophisticated, remote-controlled airplanes.

"He crashed several," Lana Dawson remembers. "Like one time up, and that's it."

Now Ryan wants to be an astronaut.

He continued to "make and break a lot of stuff," he said, working at a University of Alabama at Birmingham materials engineering lab through his high school's work-study program. Logan, through the same program, has been an intern at the National Weather Service office in Calera for the past two years.

The brothers also squeezed in swimming for their high school's team all four years. They placed fifth in state in the boys medley relay in December.

The Forestdale family spent the first eight years of the twins' lives in West End, two houses down from Lana Dawson's parents. The boys' grandmother in particular played a major role in their educational foundation, the same as she had done for her daughter.

Lana Dawson, the youngest of eight children, was 27 and working for the city of Birmingham when the twins were born.

It hasn't been easy, but Lana Dawson said she and her sons have had much support.

"Wherever there was a void, God has always provided someone to step in and fill that void," she said.

She's tried to teach her children to give back. The Eagle Scouts are working as merit badge counselors this summer at Boy Scout camp. They both worked at the Birmingham YMCA Youth Center last summer as well.

In some of their college applications, the Dawson brothers wrote about their mother.

She always thinks of them first, Logan said.

She always stays after them, too, Ryan said.

"She's pretty determined and strong and loving," Ryan said.

Ryan's next phase of life takes him to Washington University in St. Louis, where he has a full scholarship. Logan is headed to North Carolina State University, where he also has a full ride.

And no, they did not want to go to the same school.

"We've been in the same school and most of the same classes since we were in kindergarten," Logan explained, "so we thought it was time for us to split up."

While they may be apart, Linda Jones, coordinator for the IB school, predicted both students will make it to the top. She expects Logan to head the National Weather Service and Ryan to be an astronaut.

"These are going to be two young men who I really want to follow," she said.

In your voice
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SexySusan wrote:

Replying to theoverseerswhip:

They are obviously very intelligent for they did not choose to attend ASU.


theoverseerswhip,
you are not intelligent, with a name like this, my guess is------ you have a 3rd grade education......
and thats pushing it.........


5/24/2008 7:15:57 AM <p class="replyingto">Replying to <span class="author">theoverseerswhip</span>:</p><blockquote>They are obviously very intelligent for they did not choose to attend ASU.</blockquote><br /><br />theoverseerswhip,<br />you are not intelligent, with a name like this, my guess is------ you have a 3rd grade education......<br />and thats pushing it.........<br /><br /> SexySusan
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dsk8c wrote:

Hat's off to them, I bet that lady is bursting with pride. She must be an awesome mom for encouraging this sort of development.

It's amazing that with such a feel-good news story, that sets an example of what kids can do today and proves that we have such good ones that such negative comments like that get made. I guess with a screen name like that you are probably just jealous because you're a fat white-trash guy in a trailer with a hairy back and a can of pbr that will probably work for one of these guys someday.
5/24/2008 7:08:44 AM Hat's off to them, I bet that lady is bursting with pride. She must be an awesome mom for encouraging this sort of development.<br /><br />It's amazing that with such a feel-good news story, that sets an example of what kids can do today and proves that we have such good ones that such negative comments like that get made. I guess with a screen name like that you are probably just jealous because you're a fat white-trash guy in a trailer with a hairy back and a can of pbr that will probably work for one of these guys someday. dsk8c
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hootie1fan wrote:

Replying to theoverseerswhip:

They are obviously very intelligent for they did not choose to attend ASU.

And neither in attending University of Alabama or Auburn University either.
Any other Alabama institutue of higher learning for that matter.
5/24/2008 6:08:04 AM <p class="replyingto">Replying to <span class="author">theoverseerswhip</span>:</p><blockquote>They are obviously very intelligent for they did not choose to attend ASU.</blockquote><br />And neither in attending University of Alabama or Auburn University either.<br />Any other Alabama institutue of higher learning for that matter. hootie1fan