get accepted into their dream colleges.

Take a look at this.

Wait, wait, wait.

Back up.

Yeah, you up there.

Or not.

Their story is even more incredible.

From Opelousas, Louisiana, please

welcome Alex and Aryton Little.

OK, who's Alex?

Who's Aryton?

Alex.

I'm Aryton.

All right.

OK.

So look, yeah.

Hi, everybody.

So, OK, this is incredible.

You were surrounded by friends and schoolmates

not knowing which way it was going to go.

We do that for all our seniors.

It's just like a ritual we do at our school.

Right.

So it's always like a nerve-wrecking thing

for everyone sitting in that chair

because, like, that's the decision right there.

Nobody knows.

Right.

And how old are you?

I'm 18.

You're 18 and you're 16.

Yes.

And you got into Harvard.

And you got into Stanford.

I mean, not just got in, but full scholarships.

And so, you obviously do very well at school.

And this obviously has been a dream for both of you?

Oh, yes ma'am.

It's been, like, the goal that you worked

towards since you were a kid.

Those are schools that you think of.

Whenever you think of education, like Stanford, Harvard--

those are the schools you think of.

And it's really surreal just to be

able to say that I got accepted and that they're

doing all this stuff for me.

It's a little hard because for 16 years my life,

it's been Harvard.

And now I got into Harvard.

Now I'm thinking, oh--

oh, I got to pick something else to do.

It worked out.

Well, that's the good thing.

You have to pick another goal.

That's the thing in life-- you have

to keep trying to find things to search for that

makes you passionate and happy.

So this went viral.

And are you surprised by how many people have seen this?

I honestly say I was.

Because I just kind of put it on Twitter

because I was just excited, like, I did it.

I got in to college.

But then people really started taking towards the video.

And I was just like, wow.

I got excited to see all these people.

They were like retreat-- like, I'm in that room with you.

celebrating.

That type of energy is magical.

Yeah.

I mean, what makes it more amazing is

your mom is in the audience.

And hi, Mom.

You're incredible.

You are--

She is incredible.

Yeah.

You are incredible.

I told you that I saw you driving in on the lot this

morning and I-- your story is--

I mean, you were raised by a single mom.

You were on the verge of being homeless

for most of your lives.

You spent years in a home with no heat, no food a lot of times

and you would leave the oven burners on

to keep you warm at night.

Your younger brother passed away a couple of years ago.

And through all of this, you maintained the highest GPAs

in your class.

That is amazing.

I mean, that is a testament to who

you are to raise these two young boys like this.

Because a lot of people and a lot of young boys

would use that as an excuse to say, I don't have time

and, you know, go in a different direction.

Yeah, it's kind of--

it's just whenever I think about it,

I thought about education was my ticket out.

I knew that I was smart and I was able to get good grades.

I said, I'm going to work as hard

as I can to do this because I notice that our mom has

been doing a lot for us.

And so, I know one thing she likes--

she says all the time is that, no matter

what I was going through, no matter what bills were going

unpaid, or how hard her situation was,

I knew that I was coming home to kids who

weren't out getting into who knows what

and they had good grades.

She's like, that's something that she

was proud to be able to say that no matter what was going on.

Yeah.

So not only are you proud, but this is such a relief for you

to know that they are completely taken care of in college.

You don't have to worry about that.

I truly am because, you know, people

say paycheck to paycheck-- sometimes

it wasn't even paycheck to paycheck.

And I didn't want them to see and be

aware of just how bad it was.

But like he said, the one thing I didn't have to worry about

was them and their grades.

You know, what was getting cut off,

what was about to get repossessed or whatever--

I had that on my shoulders.

But the one thing I didn't have to worry about

was their schooling.

They took care of that.

It was one less thing--

Yeah.

--you know, that I had to worry about.

So that--

Well, I-- I love all of you and I have something

for your mom a little later.

But I have something for y'all for your dorm room.

Your dorm is taken care of.

Oh!

Oh, my God.

Amazing.

[INAUDIBLE] No way.

Oh my gosh.

And you don't even play guitar.

[INAUDIBLE]

I think you'll have plenty of time to play guitar.

All right, we're back with Alex and Aryton

and their mom, Maureen.

And so we didn't talk about what do y'all want to do after you

graduate?

The dream is to get a job on Wall Street.

And with that money and influence,

I want to make a nonprofit so it can help students that were

in our situation that are--

and just help them.

Because I know that I would definitely

wanted someone to help my mom.

That's a great idea.

That's fantastic.

Well, for me, part of what drew me to Stanford

was its proximity to the Silicon Valley and all the tech

opportunities out there.

And so I want to work in a place like Google or Tesla

and really get my hands in the STEM field.

And after that, I want to start a nonprofit

to help kids like my age-- well not my age, who are younger

than me get into areas in the STEM field

because I think about where I made without the resources.

Just imagine if I gave my 12-year-old self a laptop

and told him, here-- here's how you code things.

Here's a robotics kit.

Why don't you learn and tinker with that and see

would he be able to bring himself to use his energy there

as opposed to somewhere else.

Yeah, you all are amazing.

I just keep saying it.

You're just amazing.

Thank you.

All right.

And again, you just have to be so proud of them.

I mean, I just can't imagine if they would

have gotten different news.

I mean, this is--

I mean, it seemed like it was obvious they were going to get

in because of their grades.

But, I mean, you have to be just so thrilled.

I am so incredibly proud of them.

I cannot just-- it's amazing.

You know, to know that they did it even with the stuff

that we've had to deal with-- you know,

you mentioned about the oven, heat, and everything else.

It was pretty bad.

Yeah.

It really was.

Yeah.

But, you know, they did it.

Yeah.

They did it.

And then they lost-- you know, you lost a son.

They lost their brother a couple of years ago suddenly.

You know, I mean, that's a lot to go through.

Well, we want to do something for you because we love you.

And Shutterfly loves inspiring stories like this.

So they want to give you a check for $20,000.

My name!

Hi, I'm Andy.

Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel

so you can see more awesome videos, like videos

of me getting scared or saying embarrassing things,

like ball peen hammer.

And also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities,

if you're into that sort of thing.

Ah!

[BLEEP] God [BLEEP]