Two Sets of Twins in Class of 2015 Doubled Down on Success with a Whitman Education

The chance of having twins is approximately 3% globally, but the chance of having two sets of twins enroll in the Class of 2015 at the Whitman School would certainly challenge even the most savvy statistician. 

Members of the Class of 2015 were seeing double as two sets of twins roamed the halls of the Whitman School: Bernard “Ben” Essoka ’15 and Tommy “Modi” Essoka ’15, along with Natasha Caminero Sanchez ’15 and Katherine Caminero ’15 (WSM/NEW). A decade later, both sets of twins give credit to Whitman for helping them find their individual career paths.

Fraternal twins Tommy and Ben Essoka were born in Cameroon and spent their early years relocating around Africa. Being a twin meant having an instant friend when they moved to a new location, which helped a great deal when they left for boarding school in New Jersey. When it came time for college, one of Tommy’s boarding school mentors, Jacob Levy ’13, encouraged both to consider Syracuse University.

“We liked Syracuse and had similar interests, which at the time was film studies,” says Ben. “And it was a very classic college campus and was a good fit for us.”

“Our first-year dorm was an incubator for being a Whitman student, and there were lots of synergies pushing us towards Whitman, so we both transferred and decided to study finance,” says Tommy Essoka.

They enrolled in many of the same courses and took advantage of all Whitman had to offer. Ben credits the Bloomberg product certification courses as a pillar of his education, while Tommy says faculty always encouraged him “to be fearless and take paths that were less traveled.”

After graduating, the Essokas chose different careers. Ben started at Bloomberg LP as a data analyst in New York City, then moved into fintech at Blackstone, earned an MBA from Pepperdine University and is a senior products manager at Converse, working from Los Angeles. Tommy began his career in New York City as a financial analyst for Time Inc. and subsequently iHeart Media. He, too, earned an MBA from Pepperdine, which served as a springboard for his transition into the technology sector, where he completed internships at Meta and Amazon Web Services. Today, Tommy is a senior pricing associate at Google Cloud, based in the tech hub of San Francisco.

Both are giving back to Whitman. Ben is a member of the Young Whitman Advisory Council (YWAC), and Tommy has been mentoring some Whitman students and trying to help open doors to career opportunities.

Whitman’s other set of Class of 2015 twins, Katherine Caminero and Natasha Caminero Sanchez, grew up on Long Island, wearing matching outfits, sharing a bedroom and playing the same sports. Although they, too, are fraternal twins, their similar looks have caused many double takes throughout their lives.

They applied to the same colleges, never thinking they’d each choose Syracuse University. Originally, both were waitlisted, but when Katherine received a call saying she had been accepted, her first response was, “What about my sister?”

Ultimately, both enrolled at Syracuse, transferring into Whitman sophomore year with Natasha opting for a double major in accounting and finance and Katherine pursuing finance with a dual major in public relations at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“Whitman set me up for success,” says Camerino Sanchez, who joined (EY) in New York City after graduation.

She obtained her CPA and later worked at Silver Point Capital, a hedge fund in Connecticut, before heading back to the city to work at EY again, this time as a tax manager. She also earned a master’s degree from Hofstra University, got married and is about to be a first-time mom. Natasha has been making a concerted effort to get more Whitman students at EY as interns and employees.

Katherine’s career took another route, or, as her sister puts it, “She left me for California.” After graduating, Katherine went to New York City to work in compliance for Bank of America, then to UBS, but, in 2021 she moved to the West Coast for a job with JPMorgan Chase. Today, she is vice president of Ares Management Corp., a global alternative investment firm in Los Angeles. Katherine is also a member of YWAC and works with the school to reach out to more California alumni.

The Essoka and Caminero twins are grateful for their time at Whitman and appreciate the opportunities that helped them stay together while also reaching their individual successes.

“Our careers have taken us in different directions and to new challenges, but, no matter where life takes us, we’ll always have the privilege of having a twin and be proud to be Whitman graduates,” says Tommy Essoka