Home>News Center>Life
             
     

    Bush daughters avoided campus limelight
    (Agencies)
    Updated: 2004-05-21 10:09

    Walk down the street in this college town and you might not notice Barbara Bush. She could be any Yale senior eating ice cream outside a candy shop -- except for the Secret Service agent at her side.


    President George W. Bush's twin daughters, Jenna(R) and Barbara(L), will work for their father's re-election campaign after they graduate from college this month, their mother, Laura Bush, said on May 18, 2004. Jenna graduates this weekend from the University of Texas and Barbara graduates from Yale University. They are 22. The sisters are seen in Fort Hood, Texas in this April 11 file photo. [Reuters]
    Her twin sister, Jenna, shares that life of relative anonymity at the University of Texas at Austin.

    College ends in days for both of President Bush's daughters, for Jenna on Saturday with a degree in English and for Barbara on Monday with a degree in humanities.

    Their commencement exercises should be as low key as their four years of study. Neither the president nor first lady Laura Bush will attend, fearing the extra security would detract from the festivities. Instead, the family plans private dinners with friends in each college town.

    Except for a highly publicized incident at a Texas bar and a few gossip-column appearances, the 22-year-old sisters have stayed out of the limelight that follows a president's children. All the time, their schools, friends, classmates and professors have kept tightlipped about their private lives.

    "I've known Jenna since she was in middle school. We have tried to respect her wishes in that regard," said Patricia Ohlendorf, University of Texas vice president for legal affairs. "She wants to be as regular a student as possible."

    Being just a regular student was a challenge from the beginning. In 2000, just months before the disputed presidential election, Barbara arrived at Yale -- a left-leaning campus of 5,000 undergraduates who were mostly opposed, if not hostile, to her father's candidacy.

    She was the fourth generation of Bushes to attend the prestigious, 303-year-old Ivy League school. Her father was even born at Yale. Her grandfather, George H.W. Bush, was a student at the time.

    Barbara lived in the same residential college, Davenport College, as her father. Yale divides each class among 12 residential colleges, each with its own dorms, dining halls, sports, activities and coats of arms. Davenport's is three crosses and a chevron in black on a white shield.

    In Austin, Jenna blended among the 50,000 students on the sprawling UT campus. The capital city was like home -- she had lived in the governor's mansion during the six years her father was the state's chief executive.

    "I think she is able to hide better because it's such a large campus," said Erin Keck, managing editor of the Daily Texan campus newspaper.

    As an English major at UT, Jenna could have studied such classes as creative writing, the poetry of Milton, and ethnic and Third World literature. Ohlendorf would not reveal Jenna's classes or grades, but said Jenna had done "very well" and noted she was graduating in four years.

    Barbara studied the medieval, Renaissance and modern periods and their literature, history, religion, arts and philosophy. Among the requirements for a humanities degree at Yale is a senior essay.

    One classmate, Sabrina Sedique, said she would sometimes say hello to Barbara in their world religion class. "She seems like a lovely person," Sedique said. "She's very down to earth -- a very grounded and well-rounded person."

    Classmates who were closer to Barbara declined to comment, and at least one friend called the White House to report inquiries from The Associated Press.

    Like their mother, the twins joined the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Barbara has been said to be a member of Skull and Bones, the secret society for Yale seniors that tapped her great-grandfather, grandfather and father for membership.

    Yale is used to having celebrity students. Actors, athletes, the scions of wealthy families and even some foreign royalty have studied there. The university took a strict "no comment" position on Barbara's attendance. Rumpus, a campus humor magazine, was chastised for writing about her.

    Dr. David Musto, a physician and fellow of Davenport College, said he never met Barbara but knew that her classmates respected her wish to stay out of the spotlight.

    "It reminds me of when Jodie Foster was here," Musto said of the actress and Yale graduate. "The students really took care of her privacy."

    At the University of Texas, people occasionally saw Jenna jogging along Austin's hike-and-bike trail downtown with Secret Service agents trailing nearby. The campus newspaper decided to cover her only if she made news unusual for a UT student or if she aligned herself with specific campus organizations or political causes.

    But other UT students don't make national news when they're cited for alcohol offenses. In May 2001, authorities accused the then-19-year-old sisters of having drinks at a Mexican restaurant in Austin.

    Barbara pleaded no contest to underage possession of alcohol. She was ordered to perform eight hours of community service and attend alcohol-awareness class.

    It was the second alcohol-related offense for Jenna. She was fined $600 for trying to use a false ID. She lost her driver's license for 30 days, had to do more community service and attend an alcohol-awareness class.

    After graduation, the sisters plan to travel with friends, then help with their father's re-election campaign, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for Laura Bush.

    "While they're not very political people, they do want to do something to help their dad out," Johndroe said.

    Both plan to get jobs or attend graduate school, he said. Each had a summer internship in New York -- Barbara at a fashion house, Jenna at a public relations firm.

    A visit to Africa has inspired Barbara to work with AIDS sufferers, he said, while Jenna is interested in following her mother's career in education.

     
      Today's Top News     Top Life News
     

    Experts: Chen Shui-bian on road to instability

     

       
     

    Meeting smoothens China-Viet Nam problems

     

       
     

    Soldier: Abu Ghraib prison abuse normal

     

       
     

    China condemns US human rights report

     

       
     

    Iran, a peaceful land, embraces visitors

     

       
     

    Shanghai property mogul stands trial

     

       
      Bush daughters avoided campus limelight
       
      'No sex please, we're virgins'
       
      Having an affair can be deadly
       
      Extra to star in murder case
       
      Joint exhibition offers true taste of art
       
      2046 premieres to acclaim in Cannes
       
     
      Go to Another Section  
     
     
      Story Tools  
       
      Related Stories  
       
    Bush daughters in new underage drinking probe
      Feature  
      'It never gets any easier,' Tony Leung  
    Advertisement
             
    亚洲中文字幕久久精品无码APP| 亚洲中文字幕无码专区| 中国无码人妻丰满熟妇啪啪软件 | 亚洲av无码一区二区三区网站| 日韩精品无码人妻一区二区三区 | 亚洲人成人无码网www电影首页| 中文字幕热久久久久久久| 日日麻批免费40分钟无码| 国产网红主播无码精品| 亚洲第一中文字幕| 亚洲高清有码中文字| 97碰碰碰人妻视频无码| 少妇无码一区二区三区| 中文字字幕在线中文无码| 无码人妻精品一区二区三区蜜桃 | 国产AV一区二区三区无码野战| 精品无码成人片一区二区98| 最近中文国语字幕在线播放视频 | 精品久久人妻av中文字幕| 无码av中文一二三区| 久久久久亚洲?V成人无码| 精品无码人妻一区二区三区品| 日韩精品人妻系列无码专区| 亚洲A∨无码无在线观看| 午夜不卡无码中文字幕影院| 亚洲AV中文无码乱人伦下载| 亚洲AV综合色区无码一区爱AV| 中文字幕无码乱人伦| 精品无码一区二区三区在线| 国产日韩AV免费无码一区二区| 精品国产一区二区三区无码| 中文字幕无码AV波多野吉衣| 伊人久久无码中文字幕| 亚洲精品无码Av人在线观看国产| 亚洲中文字幕无码久久综合网| 亚洲精品无码精品mV在线观看| 亚洲国产精品无码中文字| 日韩AV无码精品人妻系列| 人妻丰满熟妇岳AV无码区HD| 精品人妻无码专区中文字幕| 无码人妻久久一区二区三区蜜桃 |