HONOLULU -- A University of Hawaii at Manoa student at home in Colorado for the summer is being called a hero for rescuing a young boy from drowning.

Sean Simpson, 19, was celebrating the Fourth of July camping along the Animas River when he received tragic news that a close friend had died in an accident in Chicago.

Simpson walked away from the crowds to grieve. Not five minutes later, he heard screams for help from children who said their friend was drowning.

Without thinking, Simpson said he jumped into the frigid river and saved a 5-year-old boy just before the river merged with larger rapids.

"I was so scared cause I thought I had lost the little kid when I first grabbed him and he's ok now so I'm really happy about that, but I really do think it was my friend Anna, because if I hadn't gone on that walk, no one would have been remotely close," Simpson said.

Simpson is an economics major at UH.

Simpson was in Chicago on Friday night for his friend's funeral.