TWINS EXCEL IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE AT 17, HART HIGH SISTERS DEDICATE SUMMER TO RESEARCH ENDEAVORS.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- The Tang twins wipe opponents off the court in doubles tennis, play Schubert simultaneously on the same piano and wow educators with their SAT scores.

But even at age 17, Elizabeth and Isabella Tang are also business-minded. So today, they add a trip to Nashville, Tenn., to their busy summer, attending a Future Business Leaders of America conference in the country music mecca.

Elizabeth Tang will fly to Nashville from Chicago, where she is doing a paid internship for NASA studying X-ray mirrors. In recent weeks, Isabella Tang has been getting ready for the FBLA conference.

``It's definitely been very busy,'' Isabella said. ``Like the rest of our classmates have been out on summer vacation since the beginning of June, but summer vacation hasn't really happened for us.''

The twins, who are entering their senior year at Hart High, are going to the weeklong Nashville FBLA conference as part of a four-student delegation from the William S. Hart Union High School District.

After the conference, Elizabeth will fly back home to be with her family for the July computers to study how to get the maximum level of reflectivity out of X-ray mirrors. The mirrors are used to observe celestial objects in space.

The internship is a handful even for Elizabeth, who scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT.

``It's a challenge, but it's also been rewarding living independently,'' she said.

Isabella has an internship starting later this summer. She will head to Berkeley to study particle acceleration at a lab in the University of California-run Accelerator and Fusion Research Division.

Isabella, who scored 2370 on the SAT, expects fetching coffee to be a big part of her job, but she's still cheerful about the opportunity. Like her sister, she browses the Web looking for internship opportunities.

Mom Julia Tang said she has seen her high-achieving daughters begin to look less alike physically as their personalities have evolved.

``I think Isabella is more artistic,'' she said. ``She plays piano with her heart; she's a poet. And Elizabeth is more like scientific.''

The twins are still best friends. They play doubles tennis for their school, and they also play piano to accompany a junior high choir -- playing both duets on the same piano and duos on two separate pianos.

``What distinguishes them is that they work exceptionally hard,'' said Linda Cox, who teaches business at Hart High. ``To me, they deserve everything that they have because they work hard. They're incredibly dedicated and motivated.''

Perhaps not wanting to seem too serious, Elizabeth said she likes shopping and doing the same things as other teenage girls.

But she is also aiming high, and hopes to attend either Harvard or Yale. She has recently been interested in practicing environmental law.

``My philosophy,'' she said, ``is to make the world a more beautiful place.''

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Elizabeth Tang, left, will intern at NASA this summer, while sister Isabella will study particle acceleration at UC Berkeley.