MILWAUKEE — Two seniors at Rufus King International High School in Milwaukee are set to take significant steps in their educational journeys as they prepare to attend Ivy League universities in the fall.
Brandon Patterson will be heading to the University of Pennsylvania, while Feli Brown is bound for Yale University.
Patterson and Brown started their friendship early in their high school careers. They both take International Baccalaureate (IB) courses and are involved in co-curricular groups.
As they embark on this exciting journey together, Patterson expressed how happy he is to experience this special moment with Brown.
"Experiencing this joy with my friend, I feel like it's a really great thing. And I feel like it's really an inspiration to Milwaukee and an inspiration to our school," Patterson said.
Patterson reached out TMJ4 to share their inspiring story.
“I feel like I want to share my story to let people know that at King you can really find yourself and you can achieve anything,” he stated.
He found out he was accepted to UPenn just a few weeks ago. “I was opening up my UPenn letter and I didn’t think it was a possibility that I could get in. But I opened it up and it just said congratulations, and I feel like it was one of the happiest moments of my life,” Patterson recalled.
Brown also experienced a similar moment of joy upon receiving her acceptance letter. “Like I read the letter, and I was like, oh my gosh, I just got into Yale. It felt really surreal; definitely my jaw dropped,” Brown said.
Both students attribute much of their success to Rufus King High School, which Brown describes as "the best school in the world."
The support from uplifting teachers and classmates has been invaluable for both Patterson and Brown.
Watch: Two seniors from Rufus King High School hope to inspire other students
"Everybody is just constantly trying to motivate you, and they're constantly trying to have you just become the best person you wanna be," Patterson explained.
As they prepare for the next chapter in their lives, both students have an encouraging message for their peers in MPS.
"I kinda wanna tell people that it's possible," Patterson said, emphasizing that their journeys are proof that dreams can be achieved.
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