Savannah and Sierra Secrest have walked nearly the same path since before college was even on the radar. They went to the same high school, both attended the same college, graduated with the same major, had the same All-In Milwaukee advisor and are now exploring the same graduate program.

What looks like a coincidence from the outside is really just two people who have always known what they wanted and pushed each other to get there.

At Riverside High School, Sierra and Savannah found their first glimpse of college life through Grad Plus – a college access and success program run by All-In Milwaukee pathway partner Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee. From freshman year, Grad Plus had them attending workshops, building resumes and meeting scholarship deadlines. “Without Grad Plus, I don’t even know if we’d be here,” Savannah says. “That was our only mentor at the time.”

It was through Grad Plus that they first heard about All-In Milwaukee. They still recall the call informing them that they had been accepted into the program after Grad Plus encouraged them to apply.

“We were in awe,” Savannah recalls. “We just knew All-In Milwaukee had all these different opportunities, all these great advisors, mentorship. We were so excited.”

What did a professional career look like for both of them? From the start, both sisters knew they wanted to help people. It just came down to how they were going to manifest that desire.

They quickly found their answer in psychology, a major that gave them the foundation to understand the why behind human behavior. “I thought if I could understand [the human] why, it would make me a better therapist down the road,” Sierra explains.

Throughout undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the twins leaned on their All-In Milwaukee advisor, who grew alongside them through all four years of their collegiate experience. For them, it was the consistency of the advising program that stood out most. Sierra and Savannah had one person who watched them grow from uncertain freshmen into confident seniors with a plan.

“He could really tell that [we were ready] for those next steps,” Savannah recalls. “He was just blown away by the type of growth we made.”

As part of their participation in the All-In Milwaukee program, the twins knew career pathways were an important aspect of their work. While traditional internships in psychology often require graduate-level experience or go unpaid, Sierra and Savannah found their own way to put their education into practice.

Both took on peer mentoring roles on campus, working with high school and college students in ways that felt immediately meaningful. It was hands-on confirmation of everything they had been working toward.

“We love doing what we’re doing with this peer mentoring thing,” Savannah says. “We want to continue doing that same thing down the road.”

Every session reinforced what they already believed: helping people wasn’t just something they wanted to do. It was something they were good at.

When graduate school entered the picture, their advisor stepped up to provide support and connected them with teammates across the All-In Milwaukee staff to help navigate financial aid and the application process – a relief for two first-generation students figuring out higher education without a roadmap.

“Since we’re first generation, no one had been to grad school,” Sierra says. “We were lost.”

Sierra and Savannah also became McNair Scholars while at UW-Milwaukee, a selective research program that accepts just 10 to 15 students each cycle. The program broadened their academic lens considerably, introducing them to research methodology and showing them how scholarly work connects to the careers they were building. Their McNair mentor became a significant figure in that growth, helping them see possibilities they hadn’t considered and ultimately pointing them toward a graduate assistantship opportunity that could carry them through their next chapter debt-free, just as they finished undergrad.

In fall 2026, Sierra and Savannah will both begin the Master of Social Work program at UW-Milwaukee, choosing social work for its breadth.

“Social work, you have all these different career paths you can go down,” Sierra explains. “We’re still wanting to be therapists, just taking the social work route.”

The goal has never really changed. The path to get there just kept getting clearer.

For the donors and partners who made it possible, the twins keep it simple: “Just a major thank you,” Savannah says, “for being that support system that a lot of people may not have, but we were lucky to have.”

It is the kind of support that shows up quietly in answered questions, unlocked doors and someone who refuses to let you walk away when things get hard.

Sierra puts it plainly: “[The All-In Milwaukee team was] never going to give up. They were going to find an answer, regardless.”