A teen whose acceptance video to Cornell University warmed the nation tragically drowned near a waterfall just weeks before starting at the Ivy League university.

Winston Perez-Ventura, 17, was found dead near Ithaca Falls by police divers on Saturday at 7.20pm, five hours after he went swimming and failed to re-surface.

Ithaca Police Department Acting Chief Pete Tyler said the incoming freshman had been swimming in a prohibited area.

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Incoming Cornell University freshman Winston Perez-Ventura, 17, (pictured with his mother, right) was found dead near Ithaca Falls by police divers on Saturday at 7.20pm

Perez-Venutra made headlines in December when his acceptance to Cornell, which showed his Democracy Prep Harlem High classmates erupting into cheers, went viral (pictured)

Perez-Venutra pictured on his high school graduation day. He dreamed of being an architect

'The Ithaca gorges are so, so beautiful but they can be very dangerous if folks don't obey the posted signs,' Tyler said.

'I encourage everyone to please, please follow the posted signs on the gorge trails, especially those that prohibit trespassing and swimming. The signs are in place for no other reason than to keep folks safe when they enter our gorges.'

Perez-Ventura was in Ithaca for freshman orientation ahead of the start of classes on August 23.

He was profiled by ABC New York in December, when a video of him finding out that he'd been accepted early to Cornell went viral.

Perez-Ventura was nine years old (pictured) when his mother brought him from the Dominican Republic to the US

Perez-Ventura's mother Agnelli Gutierrez (pictured) was the first to give her son a hug after he found out he was going to Cornell in December

Winston participated in the Fellowship Initiative, an enrichment program for young men of color, in high school and loved to draw and paint

The sweet video shows Winston-Perez sitting down at a table with a laptop, his classmates nervously surrounding him as he waits to find out the news.

‘Are you ready?’ he jokingly asks as his friends at Democracy Prep Harlem High laugh.

He then pounds the table in happiness, yelling ‘Yes!’ as the entire class bursts into cheers when the screen reveals he had been accepted.

Winston-Perez held his hand to his chest at one point in the clip, so overwhelmed with emotion at the news as his mom and friends brought him in for hugs.

The incoming freshman was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Harlem with his mother Agnelli Gutierrez when he was nine.

Ithaca Police Department Acting Chief Pete Tyler said that Perez-Ventura had been swimming in a prohibited area near the falls (pictured)

Police divers recovered Perez-Ventura's body on Saturday at 7.20pm, about five hours after he went swimming and failed to re-surface

'As an immigrant, sometimes we cannot have maybe so much of a heritage to leave to our kids,' she told the network.

'But education is the main thing that we can definitely get for them.'

Cornell had always been Perez-Ventura's dream school, according to his high school homeroom teacher and college counselor Danielle Leach.

'He handed me a little piece of paper that said, "Cornell is my first choice and I want to study architecture,'" she told New York Daily News.

His mother dreamed of giving him a good education. He is pictured here on prom night

Perez-Ventura is pictured here smiling down at his newborn baby brother

One family friend told CBS New York that Perez-Venture was 'very creative' and loved to draw and paint.

'He was so into the community,' she added. 'Did a lot of volunteer work.'

Ryan Lombardi, Cornell's VP for Student and Campus Life, said Perez-Ventura also participated in an enrichment program for young men of color while in high school.

He described the young teen as an 'exceptional person, who would have contributed greatly to our university community'.

Tributes to the teen poured in on Facebook from former classmates and teachers over the weekend.

'I am still in shock and disbelief that such an amazing human being like Winston Perez-Ventura could be gone, wrote Estefany Angeles.

'Just a few weeks ago I stood and celebrated his high school graduation and congratulated him on his long awaited dream of attending Cornell.'

'It is devastating that his life was cut so unpredictably short.'