Often referred to by their peers as ‘the Magtotos’, Bonita Vista High (BVH) seniors Brianna Magtoto, Angela Magtoto and Cherise Magtoto are all known for being heavily involved on campus and in their community. The triplets find ways to highlight their differences within these differing activities, while also using their school involvement to connect with one another.
B. Magtoto takes part in several different clubs at BVH, some being TEDx, Students for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM), Hack club and Speech and Debate. However, the extracurricular she is most passionate about happens outside of school. B. Magtoto helps organize local hackathons—an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time.
“We have these events where a lot of coders come and do cool projects. But something special that I am doing is that I am organizing a hackathon for marginalized individuals. So I help organize these events for people who are historically marginalized in technology, just to bridge that gap,” B. Magtoto said.
In relation to these hackathons, while not entirely sure of the exact field, B. Magtoto is looking into pursuing a form of electrical engineering. More than anything, B. Magtoto wants her future profession to make some sort of impact in her community.
“I do not necessarily know what I want to do in the future. But I know that I want to do something that impacts my community, something that has an intersection with electrical engineering but also the overall well being of my community,” B. Magtoto said.
Similar to her sister, A. Magtoto has a strong interest in STEAM. She is involved in TEDx, students for STEAM, Hack club, Junior Optimist and Robotics club. While A. Magtoto stresses her appreciation of all these clubs, she feels the one that has most impacted her is robotics.
“I spend a lot of my time doing robotics. Like Brianna, I am really interested in the field of electrical engineering, kind of like mechanical engineering and programming in general. That is kind of our future and I want to help build that future,” A. Magtoto said.
Robotics has helped A. Magtoto find her passion as well as improve her leadership skills. The club gives her the opportunity to learn skills she will need to pursue engineering.
“For robotics, I am Team D leader. I lead a group of six people, building a robot every Monday and Wednesday. It helps me learn engineering—which is something I am super passionate about,” A. Magtoto said.
In addition to robotics and her other clubs, A. Magtoto is involved in the virtual production class at BVH. The class is a perfect combination of her interest in creativity as well as coding and engineering.
“I like the creative aspects of coding and engineering. I am also part of the virtual production class here at school. I really like the intersection between coding and creativity. How cool would it be to essentially make art with robots?” A. Magtoto said.
C. Magtoto’s interests differ slightly from that of her sisters. She is part of TEDx, Hack club, junior optimist, Speech and Debate and Young Leaders in Healthcare—additionally taking on the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Her greatest passion resides in the realm of volunteering.
“The extracurricular that I am most passionate about is volunteering. On Thursdays, I volunteer at Scripps Mercy Hospital and on Fridays I volunteer at Kaiser Permanente. I think volunteering is really great, because it gives me an additional perspective of the medical field and it allows me to personally impact my community,” C. Magtoto said.
At Scripps Mercy Hospital, C. Magtoto does hands-on work where she gets to interact with patients, giving them medications and anything that they need. She values these experiences as they directly relate to what she wants to pursue as a career.
“I am looking to go pre-medical. I want to major in either neuroscience or molecular and cell biology depending on the science that is offered at the school I end up attending,” C. Magtoto said.
Being a triplet, C. Magtoto notes the negatives as well as the positives of the experience. There is stress when it comes to their overlapping schedules, but the three find a way to see the positives in this overlap.
“Being a triplet can be really hectic at times. We are all doing the same thing at the same time. Right now, we are all scrambling to do college applications because it is application season. But we are also asking each other to revise essays and help with assignments. While it can be hectic, at the same time there is a support system to help us,” C. Magtoto said.
One misconception surrounding being a triplet that A. Magtoto mentions is the idea that B. Magtoto and C. Magtoto are closer because they are identical while she is fraternal. C. Magtoto addresses the fact that this is not the case at all.
“A lot of the time people think Brianna and I are just twins, and I think that makes Angela feel excluded sometimes. There were phases in our childhood when me and Angela would be closer or phases where Briana and Angela would be closer. But now I think we are all kind of close. We do not have favorites,” C. Magtoto said.
The biggest misconception that surrounds the triplets’ relationship, however, comes down to their identity. As triplets, they are often grouped, and while they mention that this does not bother them, they prioritize having different passions in addition to their similar passions to combat this idea.
“We have our own separate interests. We have our own personalities. Cherise is seen as the most outgoing. I am a little more reserved. Brianna is very driven. I think it is important that people see us as individuals even though a lot of what we do is related,” A. Magtoto said.
The triplets do activities together such as Hack club and TEDx to connect, but they have also found themselves within their passions. C. Magtoto notes how being a triplet has had a big role in forming her identity but it does not define her nor her sisters.
“People think we do the same things, or we think about the same thing at the same time. But I do not think that is true. I think we all have our individual identities,” C. Magtoto said. “The commonality between us is that we are related and that we all look very similar, but we have still found our own identity separate from each other. Being a triplet is central to my identity, but I have found my own individuality outside of it.”
