Unfortunately, most news out of Ferguson, Missouri, in recent years hasn’t been of the positive variety.  This year, though, 17-year-old Barrington Lincoln had a happy Christmas surprise for his family and has shared it with the world.

Lincoln, a senior at Lutheran North, was accepted into his dream school: Morehouse College. To share his happy news with his mother and aunt — both of whom he credits with his success — Lincoln had special t-shirts made up. He filmed the announcement and shared it on Twitter:

I surprised my mom and my aunt with my acceptance to Morehouse for Christmas! #morehouse22 and don’t mind my voice, I’m a little sick pic.twitter.com/oz6Wn84Hnk

— Barrington Lincoln (@MVO_323) December 26, 2017

Lincoln explained:

“They’re the two most important ladies in my life, and they’ve just done so much for me in my lifetime,” Barrington said in an interview. “I just wanted to, not really reward them, but show them that everything they’ve done has paid off.”

His mother, Lisa McDonald, worked long hours and late-night shifts so she could send him to private school for most of his life, he said. His aunt, Shirley Gray, was there for him whenever he needed anything — clothes, shoes, a person to talk to. They cared for him when his father was diagnosed with leukemia in his freshman year, when he donated his own bone marrow to help his father and when his father died in Barrington’s sophomore year.

“It was a really tough time in my life, but they really carried me through it despite all of my emotional battles,” Barrington said. “They were always there. They never gave up on me.”

“I view Morehouse as a paradise for a young black man seeking success,” he said. “They produce individuals equipped to change the world.”