Calvin Bowe and Kevin Wilson have more in common than most pairs of unrelated people could possibly imagine.

The two attended Chowan University and recently graduated. Bowe is from Suffolk; Wilson is originally from Chesterfield, but his mom moved to Suffolk while he was attending Chowan.

The college careers of the two young men, both criminal justice majors, mirrored each other.

Wilson was president of the criminal justice club at the school, and Bowe was its vice president. Both stayed on the dean’s and president’s lists every semester. Both were in multiple honors societies. Both were presidential ambassadors and belonged to various campus ministries.

“Me and him are brothers,” Wilson said of Bowe. “He’s my right-hand man, most definitely.”

Bowe echoed the sentiment.

“We’ve been close ever since freshman year,” Bowe said. The two stayed in the same dorm and saw each other around campus more and more.

“We started talking and became good friends from there,” he said.

When the time came to present some of the highest honors given to students at Chowan, Bowe and Wilson were in line together.

The two were the only Suffolk residents this year to be inducted into the Order of the Silver Feather, an honor reserved for students nominated by faculty and staff and then selected for inclusion. The order gives recognition to those students “who have been especially outstanding in their service to the campus community and whose loyalty to Chowan University has been extremely noteworthy,” according to a press release from the college.

And when it came time to select the Outstanding Male Criminal Justice Student Award, typically given only to one young man, you guessed it — Bowe and Wilson were both recognized. The female award went to the third musketeer in their circle of friends, Ashley Tackett, of Norfolk.

The similarities haven’t stopped after their graduations from Chowan. Wilson plans to attend Regent University to get his master’s degree. Bowe is considering graduate work at Regent as well. Both are thinking about careers in high-level law enforcement such as the FBI or Department of Homeland Security.

For Bowe, the inspiration for a law enforcement career came from his father, who is a Suffolk sheriff’s deputy, and his godfather, who works for Franklin Police Department.

“Both of them combined really touched my interest in criminal justice,” Bowe said. “Once I found out about the Department of Homeland Security, that just added more interest for me to pursue my degree in criminal justice.”

Bowe, who works at Chick-fil-A in downtown Suffolk, said he has applied for three jobs with Homeland Security and hopes to be able to go back to school to get his master’s in emergency management and homeland security.

Wilson remembers wanting to be in law enforcement since at least high school.

“Ever since high school, I loved to serve people,” he said. “It just brought joy to me. I wanted to get into a field where I could serve.”

Wilson is currently in training for the Regent University Police Department and intends to start his master’s work there in the fall.

“I want to get my master’s in leadership and administration,” Wilson said. “Before I made the decision to work at Regent, I wanted to find a good school to work at. The campus and the environment is perfect for developing the leadership.”

The final thing both Bowe and Wilson have in common? They give all the glory to God for their success thus far.

“I’m on my way to exactly my dream, and it’s all thanks to God,” Wilson said. “God is my MVP.”