College is about having independence and making a space for yourself away from your family. However, for the Powell quintuplets they decided to make their experience at Bellarmine a family affair.
First Years Ella, Chloe, Samuel, Jackson and Jacob Powell are BU’s first set of quintuplets. Yet, it was not always the plan for all the Powell’s to be Knights.
“It’s kind of funny but we definitely were not all planning to go to the same college at all. I thought most of us would be at four or five different colleges. Then, you know with scholarships and being close to home, it kind of all worked out,” Jackson said.
Chloe said she tried her hardest to not be at the same college as her siblings. She said she wanted to go somewhere else and gain some distance and independence.
“We’re always lumped together, and I want to be my own person,” Chloe said, “I didn’t want people to think I chose it because everyone else did,”
All five of the siblings have their own varied interests and hobbies. Jacob said it’s nice to have people know him as himself and not as one of the five quints.
“Sometimes it gets old especially since Jackson and I are the twins. People will just call us that, so it gets old but at the same time I am used to it,” Jacob said.
The Powells each said they like people to know them both as individuals and a group. Here is a small look into their lives.
Ella is a nursing major at BU and hopes to go into pediatric oncology. She said she wanted this career path after watching Jacob survive cancer as a child.
“We all had to watch him go through that, so I want to be able to help others in that way,” Ella said.
Ella said her first year at BU has been different than she expected but Covid hasn’t stopped her from making friends and enjoy all of campus. She also said her best friend on campus is a quadruplet, so it was a happy coincidence for her.
Outside of academia, Ella is a very active and adventurous person. She often plays soccer and has been playing since she was five years old. Recently, she said she has picked up running with her sister.
“I love like hiking and I really like backpacking. I pretty much love anything outdoors. I hate that winter is coming because I want to be outside,” Ella said.
Ella set some goals for the upcoming year, such as training for a marathon in April and becoming a camp counselor this summer.
“I want to accomplish those and then just not flunking school I guess – particularly anatomy and physiology,” Ella said, “I’m interested in so many different things and I am determined to set my mind to it and accomplish so many things. If I try hard enough, if I want it hard enough then I will get it.”
Jackson is also a nursing major and said Jacob’s illness also inspired him to go into medicine. He said nursing was not always his plan and at one time he planned to pursue something with computers.
“Nursing was in the back of my mind and something in the medical field was also in the back of my mind. For a while I wasn’t sure I was going into then like about a year ago I just felt like nursing was that I was being called to,” Jackson said.
Jackson said he enjoys having the same major as Ella because he has a built in study buddy at home.
Outside of nursing he likes to rock climb and go bouldering at Climb Nulu. Typically he said he goes there two to three times a week but is currently unable to go due to the large crowd of protestors. Much like Ella, he is also an active person and loves playing “soccer tennis” with his siblings, which is kicking a soccer ball over the net on a tennis court.
“I really like rock climbing because there’s a challenge and figuring out how to get up each problem because one thing might not work,” Jackson said, “You could be a weaker climber than a stronger climber but if you have the right mentality you can get up on it cause you’re approaching it differently.”
Chloe is a communication major and wants to pursue a Master’s in business or international studies. She said she wants to do mission work or to assist with a nonprofit.
“I took a mission trip to Haiti and I want to do that again. I wants to use those skills that I learn here to help people,” Chloe said.
She said she would love to continue going a broad while at BU. Chloe has setup appointments to talk to advisors in the study abroad office with hopes to travel next summer abroad.
Chloe is a member of the BU cross country team and plans to join the track and field team in the spring. She said soccer was always her sport but this summer she got into running and decided to give it a try at Bellarmine.
“I was a lazy bum from November to summer but then a friend encouraged me to run and he gave me a few challenges,” Chloe said, “I continued to get more challenges and getting my pace up and my times where looking good. It wasn’t what I planned on doing but I like the girls [on the team] and I like the challenge.”
Chloe said she wants to continue to challenge herself over the course of her freshman year on the team. She said she wants to beat at least one of the records for first-years on the cross country team.
Chloe said she is dedicated to her school work, her athletics and her job. Although, she said the business doesn’t bother her too much.
“I don’t have a life outside of work, school and running. I am the person who can’t sit still for more than ten seconds but I enjoy being busy,” Chloe said.
Jacob is majoring in computer engineering. He said he has always been the tech guy in his house.
“I’ve always loved programming and fixing computers I’m taking calculus and discrete mathematics exactly the most fun classes if you know what I mean. Not really enjoying those, but I know I have to get through them,” Jacob said.
Jacob like many other college students isn’t happy that Covid has put a damper on his college plans. He said that college isn’t what he pictured but it wasn’t as bad as he thought.
“I’m doing most of my classes online so I’m not super involved on campus,” Jacob said. “I was thinking about how four years ago the college life is definitely not like it is now. But it’s not like much is changed honestly from high school to college because it’s all online.”
Jacob said beyond school he is busy being a manager at Culver’s and rock climbs with his siblings. He said he tried to keep a good work-life-school balance and it is working for him so far this school year.
He has more personal goals for himself when compared to his siblings. Jacob said he wants to work on his physical fitness and he and his brother have been working out in their gym at home. He said he wants to strengthen his relationship with his friends, family and girlfriend.
Samuel is a business administration major and he hopes to add a minor within the next year. He said he wants to get his MBA once he graduates.
“There’s a lot of things I do but I don’t know exactly what I want to do. Maybe when I get an internship that will really like let me know exactly what I want to do with my major,” Samuel said.
Samuel said he doesn’t do much outside of work other than his work, which he loves dearly.
“I work at Chick-fil-A and I love everybody working there. It’s well-staffed so it’s not really like stressful. I usually get there at like 6:30 a.m or 7 and leave around 2 p.m. I have a nice work-life balance,” Samuel said.
Samuel said he has simple goals for the year, he simply wants to pass all his classes. He also said he wants to start exploring the world of internships here at BU.
“I want to stay local to just get with a company and using my degree to my best ability. I don’t really like math, but I guess it would be interesting to do marketing or something out of my comfort zone to guess what I would do is an intern,” Samuel said.
Samuel declined to submit a photo.
At the end of the day, all of the quints are happy to be at BU. Ella said they all had to be smart about where they went to college, but she is glad she was the first of her siblings to commit to the school.
“I like to remind everyone that I was the leader in coming here,” Ella said. “It kind of just all fell in to place for us and we all hard pretty great scholarships.”
Quintuplet Superlatives
Here are what the siblings really think of each other. Each Powell was asked to give a superlative to their siblings. Here are a few of the highlights.
- Chloe – Most Likely to Win a Track Meet (Given by Ella)
- Samuel – Most Likely to Talk to Strangers (Given by Chloe)
- Jacob – Most Likely to Get Married First (Given by Jackson)
- Jackson – Most Likely to Move to the Countryside (Given by Samuel)
- Ella – Best Chef (Given by Jacob)