Two sisters, six years apart, forge their own paths in Alpha Phi while growing closer along the way.
Words by Elizabeth Liberatore, editor-in-chief Photos by Tim Gillies
A six-year age gap between siblings doesn’t seem like much, at least not on paper. But in childhood, six years can feel like an entirely different lifetime. When one sister is learning long division, the other is learning how to drive. Maddie and Ava Seesdorf know this feeling well. Now 24 and 18, the sisters have more in common than they ever did growing up. “I was a kid when Maddie was a teenager, so we weren’t really close since we couldn’t relate to each other,” Ava says. “That changed when I got to high school and Maddie went off to college.” Maddie and Ava call Broomfield, Colorado, home, but their family also spent two years living in Singapore when they were younger — an experience they both still cherish. “Living in Singapore changed my life,” Maddie says. “Maddie remembers a lot more than I do, and she definitely speaks more Mandarin,” Ava adds. “But it shaped me too.” Those early experiences would become part of what shaped their paths — paths that eventually led both sisters to the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), and ultimately to Alpha Phi, bringing them closer than ever.
Maddie (left) and her younger sister Ava (right).
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