Lin “William” Cong remembers his early childhood as a time of playing in the street, reading comic books, and coasting through the early grades. College was a dream.

But Cong graduates from Harvard today (June 4) with Phi Beta Kappa honors, a dual bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics, a secondary field degree in economics, a language citation in French, and — whew! — a master’s degree in physics.

At age 12, high test scores earned him the chance to board and study at Northeast Yucai School, a middle school just across town in Shenyang, his native city of 5 million in northeast China.

“It was my first time away from home,” said Cong (pronounced tsung), and he was ill-prepared academically. “I learned to work hard ... and to have empathy for others not doing well.”

At age 14, Cong won a competitive scholarship that took him even farther from home — to Hwa Chong Junior College in Singapore. He fought off loneliness, cultural isolation, and a crisis of confidence to burrow deep into physics, chemistry, higher math, and Chinese calligraphy.

In his gap year — Hwa Chong graduates its students in November — Cong worked in Singapore. Every month, he earned what his parents earned in a year.

In the time since, mostly from part-time work at Harvard, Cong has sent his parents enough money to buy a house and keep up with the payments. “My money is my parents’ money,” he said. “It’s not a separate account.”

His hometown, a thriving industrial hub, is famous for its airplane factory, for the pianist Lang Lang, and for being the founding capital of the Qing dynasty. But Shenyang may one day be famous for Cong himself.

Since high school, the John Harvard Scholar has authored five academic articles in mathematics and science; won many fellowships and prizes, including the Jack T. Sanderson Memorial Prize (for physics) and the Allston Burr Resident Dean’s Award (from Lowell House). Cong has also had six rigorous research jobs at Harvard, at the University of Cambridge, and in Singapore.

In the fall he will start a Ph.D. program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business to study finance and economics. China’s rapid growth is driven by Western economic models, said Cong, but few of its economists are trained in the United States.

His mother, Li Naiyan, is a nurse at a kindergarten, and his father, Cong Zhiliang, is a city policeman. For both his parents, education stopped at the ninth grade.

His father was sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, but he managed to save his texts in physics, a favorite subject. The same books first inspired his son to study the science of matter and motion.

“They went through hardships,” Cong said of his parents, “but they aren’t bitter about it.” Both will be at the Harvard graduation ceremony. Cong’s mother had visited Cambridge once before; his father had never been on an airplane.

“I have great parents,” he said. “They love me deeply.”

Cong himself has visited home once or twice a year since coming to Harvard, but never for more than a month. “If I stayed longer,” he said, “I’d put on weight.”

Aside from his academic accomplishments, Cong is an ardent practitioner of the physical arts.

He was on Harvard’s badminton team in its championship 2005-06 season. He participated in intramural squash, crew, and swimming, and found time to study tae kwon do and aikido.

These days, the slight, muscular Cong practices CrossFit, a hell-bent combination of aerobic training and weight lifting that burns calories like a bonfire. “The movements,” he said of dead lifts, running, shoulder presses, and rowing, “you actually use in real life.”

Real life for Cong has also included volunteering at the Harvard College Fund, serving as president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students, and taking up French, from scratch, in his sophomore year.

Cong is studying Japanese now too, in part because of a Kawamura Fellowship this summer. “It’s like a cultural immersion,” he said: five weeks in Japan, and a week each in Korea and Thailand.

Cultural immersion was the idea behind the nonprofit foundation Cong co-founded in 2007: Initiating Mutual Understanding through Student Exchange (IMUSE).

The idea is to get future U.S. and Chinese leaders to experience each other’s culture — “to get them to talk,” he said, “even on sensitive issues.”

Harvard has taught Cong the value of exploring more than one academic pursuit, and of searching out your passion in learning. If students don’t feel it, he said, “they take a year off and find it.”

Harvard also taught him the true value of his parents, of fine teachers, and of lasting friends, said Cong. “I really want to thank them.”

The jersey, the helmet, the pads, the cleats — at a glance it’s easy for Andrew Berry to blend in with the rest of his teammates. But take a look at the Bel Air, Md., native after he’s left the stadium and you’ll realize that it isn’t just football that makes him special. Make no mistake, Berry’s athletic resume is impressive. Standing an inch over 6 feet, at 175 pounds, the Crimson cornerback finished his football career with three consecutive first-team All-Ivy League selections, racked up 125 tackles and five interceptions, and struck so much fear into opposing teams that quarterbacks rarely threw the ball in his direction. In his junior year he went four consecutive games without even having the ball thrown toward him.

Berry was named an All-American in his senior season; was one of five finalists for the John Wooden Citizenship Cup, which goes to the nation’s highest-achieving student-athlete who best displays character, teamwork, and citizenship; was a finalist for the Draddy Trophy as the national scholar-athlete of the year (academic Heisman Trophy); and was named the Football Championship Subdivision Athletic Director Association Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

While Berry’s on-field performance for the past four years has been nothing short of phenomenal, the All-American’s awards and statistics don’t tell the whole story.

Berry’s moves in the classroom were just as impressive. A John Harvard Scholar recently elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Berry will be receiving two degrees at Commencement — an A.B. in economics and an M.S. in computer science.

So how was it possible for Berry to find a way to excel at both athletics and academics? He explains that his passion for football, mixed with the expectations his parents had for him and his two siblings, motivated him at a young age.

“It was very simple in our household growing up,” said Berry. “Our parents set the bar very high for their kids: ‘If you guys don’t get straight A’s, you guys won’t play sports.’ It was as simple as that. … Because my brother and I loved sports so much, we never even flirted with that line. That mentality [was] engrained in us as we went through middle school, as we went through high school.”

Berry’s pigskin passion was shared with his twin brother Adam growing up, but despite playing on the same team in high school, Andrew found his brother on the other side of the line of scrimmage in college, after the two chose different college destinations: Andrew came to Harvard and Adam played for Princeton. Andrew said that lining up against his wide-receiver brother was odd for him — briefly.

“The first time was a little strange. I was a quarterback in high school so I was sort of used to throwing him the ball, so being against him was a little weird,” he said. “But after the first quarter of the first game, he was just another competitor.”

When asked if he ever laid a big hit on the Princeton Berry, Andrew said with a laugh, “He actually got me one year on a block.” Yet he didn’t neglect to add, “I never got a big hit on him, but he never caught a pass on me.”

Berry repeatedly credits his parents for the success he has had on and off the field, yet his most rewarding experiences at Harvard have not necessarily been on the turf or in the classroom, but in answering the call to serve the wider community.

“My parents were really good at making sure that we as kids always knew where we came from, regardless of how successful or unsuccessful we were,” Berry explains. “The one thing they said was, ‘Remember that as much as you have been blessed, as many people who have been blessings in your life, if you have that opportunity you should take that opportunity to be a blessing to someone else.’ That’s something I’m probably most proud of at my time at Harvard — the service opportunities I’ve been able to be part of.”

Andrew’s work with the Phillips Brooks House Association Summer Urban Program as a teacher and director; science and math tutoring at the St. Paul A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church; and after-school program volunteering are just a few examples of the commitment he has made in his four years.

Berry will continue to find ways to volunteer in his time after Harvard and hopes eventually to serve as a mentor to young men and children in some capacity. One certainly would be hard-pressed to find a better role model.

“I feel like I won the lottery in the sense of I had so many good supportive people around me that pointed me in the right direction at critical points of my life, and I feel like if I’m in a position where I might be able to help somebody else out, that’s an opportunity I’d love to take.”

Complete strangers recognize Dan Jones on campus all the time. It’s the same for his brother, Bill.

“I just play along,” said Dan. “I don’t know their names, I’ve never seen them before. I just assume Bill knows them and I try to be friendly so they don’t start hating him.”

There’s a connection between the graduating identical twins that runs much deeper than their looks: a sense of parallel lives and a profound love for, and dedication to, each other that has motivated them for 20 years. The pair falls into that category of twins who share an intense, almost indescribable relationship, one that transcends sibling attachment. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We’ve pretty much done everything together, all the time,” said Dan. “It’s very nice,” added Bill. “I think it’s an advantage. You are never alone. Whenever there is a new situation, your best friend is there.”

For the athletic duo, the water has had a lot to do with their bond.

Growing up in western Michigan in a small town surrounded by lakes — and with a mother who was uncomfortable in the water — swimming classes were a must.

“It just so happens we were good at it,” said Dan.

And they were good, indeed, very good. They began swimming competitively at the age of 6. But their team’s practice pool was too far away to get to, so they spent countless hours in a pool closer to home, honing their skills against each other. “It made us better,” said Dan. “We didn’t have a coach; there was nobody there to motivate us except for each other, and that was pretty much essential to us getting as far as we did.”

Both eventually chose to swim the strenuous butterfly stroke in competitions. As time passed, their rivalry became so fierce — their finishes often separated only by hundredths of a second — friends would wager on who would win.

The University of Michigan and its legendary sports program looms large in the eyes of many an athletic high school senior from the state, and initially the pair were intent on swimming for the Wolverines. But a trip east changed all that. The combination of Harvard’s rigorous academic curriculum and strong swimming program was a perfect fit for the Midwest pair who had excelled in high school as both scholars and athletes.

“We liked it; we felt like we fit in here with the team; we liked the coach, and there have been no regrets. We made the right choice,” said Bill.

Attending different schools was never even a consideration.

“That’s what we thrive on,” offered Dan as a simple explanation, “each other’s support.”

As freshmen, they were separated, residing in different dorms, but sophomore year they were together again, living as roommates through their senior year at Winthrop House.

Though they are intense rivals in the water, they also love seeing each other succeed. In 2008, Bill qualified for the Olympic Swimming Trials and for the past two years has qualified for the NCAA championships. Dan was thrilled his brother was able to compete on such a grand stage. When Dan, who had been sidelined for much of his final swimming season with an illness, made it back to the pool and shone at this year’s Ivy championships, the loudest cheers came from Bill.

“He didn’t just get best times,” said Bill, “he got best times by a significant margin, which is incredible.”

The Jones brothers are both organismic and evolutionary biology concentrators, and, as in the pool, have relied on each other for academic support. Both did their senior theses on different aspects of the Charles River. In their spare time, when not studying or swimming, their aquatic interest extends to their hobby of wooden fish carving, a skill they largely picked up on their own. What began as a childhood effort to carve fishing lures out of backyard willow tree branches has grown into a successful business. Today both are accomplished artists able to create intricately hand-carved and painted works of art.

But after graduation, their close connection will be severed by distance for the first time. Bill is headed to San Diego to pursue a Ph.D. in biological oceanography at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Dan will remain on the East Coast to study for medical school entrance exams.

“Hopefully, without each other we will still accomplish something,” laughed Dan, who intends to go into cardiology or possibly heart surgery.

And though their competitive swimming careers are over, some day the two hope to complete an Ironman Triathlon. Together.