College Junior with Special Needs Celebrates Joining the Fraternity

A South Carolina student is making history.

Junior Charlie McGee became the first special needs student admitted to a fraternity at Clemson University, CBS News reported.

While the ClemsonLIFE two-year program provides students with intellectual disabilities, such as McGee with Down Syndrome, with valuable skills to live independently. He told the outlet that he wanted to have the full college experience by joining a fraternity “to have a great time and experience the brotherhood and more joy.”

McGee’s wish was granted in September when he received an offer to Pi Kappa Alpha.

In a heartwarming way video Posted by CBS News, showing his reaction to being accepted, McGee ran to his fraternity brothers and excitedly hugged them outside the college as the students all milled around him and cheered, welcoming their newest member.

A member of Pi Kappa Alpha told the outlet, “That was one of the coolest moments we had at Clemson, seeing that there. The joy and the light that we were missing in our chapter that we didn’t know we had missed from the beginning is unreal.”

Another member added that McGee “considered all the preconceptions that I thought a fraternity man should be.”

The historic acceptance has led to positive change, with a total of six fraternities and five sororities welcoming students to the ClemsonLIFE program this year, according to the report.

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McGee said he has also felt a difference in himself since being welcomed.

He told CBS News, “My disability doesn’t really exist.”