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25 Days of Sweetness

Watch this 16-year-old find out he is going to Harvard

Ayrton Little and his classmates celebrate his acceptance and it goes viral

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    Kelley D. Evans By @kelleysthrngrl

    When 16-year-old Ayrton Little learned that he had been accepted at Harvard University in front of family, friends and classmates at T.M. Landry College Preparatory in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, celebratory mayhem erupted.

    The Opelousas, Louisiana, native posted the video to his Twitter account on Tuesday, and lots of people have joined Little in celebrating.

    This is the third consecutive year a student from T.M. Landry has been accepted into an Ivy League university. The high school is noted for its rigorous academic program, and its student body has a 100 percent acceptance rate into four-year colleges and universities.

    “Harvard has always been my dream school,” Little told HuffPost. He plans to study math and computer science.

    His older brother, Alex, was accepted at Stanford University a few days earlier, and his video documenting the moment is posted on Twitter as well. Ayrton skipped a grade and will turn 17 in February, so both brothers are high school seniors. (A younger brother, who died after an asthma attack five years ago, would have been 13 this year.)

    “It still haven’t been calm since my brother’s acceptance Friday, but my brother and I realized that we have done the impossible,” Ayrton said. “Many of my classmates are also getting their decisions this week. I honestly don’t know when the excitement will die down at this point.”

    “Seeing Ayrton also doing it,” Alex told WBUR, “those goals we set for each other kind of caused us to become real competitive and push each other to do the best we can.”

    Their mother, Maureen Little, a culinary teacher and a single mom, said she is proud of her sons. The two always “brought home good grades,” she said.

    The brothers told WBUR they plan to develop nonprofit organizations that will help other students.

    Kelley Evans is a digital producer at Andscape. She is a food passionista, helicopter mom and an unapologetic Southerner who spends every night with the cast of The Young and the Restless by way of her couch.

    This Story Tagged: Harvard University 25 Days of Sweetness Ayrton Little T.M. Landry College Preparatory