The irony? The two women were both enrolled in the same creative writing course and realized their connection during class.
Lizzie Valverde and Katy Olson were both enrolled in Columbia's School of General Studies, and during their very first literary-reporting class the professor asked each student to go around the table to introduce themselves. While Valverde started providing the class with her introduction, she shared personal details about her life, like she was adopted and had a daughter, among other things.
Valverde's details triggered a reaction in her still unrealized sister, and Olson was visibly shaken.
"It looked like she was having a panic attack," Valverde said, according to the Times.
Olson grabbed Valverde after class and told her that she thought they may actually be sisters. They immediately started sharing details about their lives and comparing stories. Eventually, they realized they were indeed sisters, both given up for adoption in Tampa, Florida.
Valverde has actually met their biological mother before after she discovered her maiden name under a whited-out section of an adoption certificate. But she didn't know she had a biological sister.
Their mother, Leslie Parker, had the two sisters when she was a teenager and gave them up so they would have the opportunity for a better life, the Times wrote.
And in the ultimate happy ending, Parker and flew up for a first-time meeting with Olson for her graduation from Columbia. "I'm so proud of them," Parker told ABC news. "They're both amazing, beautiful women."