The Heartwarming Moment a Girl With Down Syndrome Finds Out She's Going to College
— -- The heartwarming moment a young woman with Down syndrome finds out she’s going to college is going viral, delighting the Internet with her raw, emotional excitement.
“I got in!! I’m going to college!” Rachel Grace, of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, yells in the sweet video of her acceptance into East Stroudsburg University.
Rachel looked at four schools, but only applied to ESU because “it’s the only one we were comfortable with,” her mother, Deb Grace, told ABC News. “It’s a big part of the independence, being able to live there."
The family spent months waiting for a response from the school after Rachel sent in her paperwork on January 15.
“Finally we got a call for an interview March 17 and it felt really positive,” Deb recalled. “All you could hear was her talking, talking, talking. When they walked out they said how much they enjoyed her. And all I could think was, ‘We can’t get this far and have this kind of feedback and it not work out.’”
Fortunately for Rachel, it did.
“She was just so happy,” her mom said. “She’s been planning this her whole life. We’ve always told her, ‘You’re going to go to college and you’re going to get married and you’re going to have everything that everyone else has.’”
Deb credits Rachel’s high school, North Penn, for helping encourage and support her throughout her education.
“She’s been the manager of her basketball team for three years,” said Deb. “When the team got ahold of the video it went insane. They don’t see the difference. They see the opportunity and that’s incredible.”
Rachel will start school in the fall and she couldn’t be more thrilled.
