A billionaire technology investor and philanthropist says he will provide grants to wipe out the student debt of the entire graduating class at Morehouse College - an estimated $40 million.
Robert F. Smith, this yearsa国际传媒檚 commencement speaker, made the announcement Sunday morning while addressing nearly 400 graduating seniors of the all-male historically black college in Atlanta. Smith is the Founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software, data, and technology-driven companies.
sa国际传媒淥n behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, wesa国际传媒檙e gonna put a little fuel in your bus,sa国际传媒� Smith told the graduates. sa国际传媒淭his is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.sa国际传媒�
The announcement elicited stunned looks from faculty and students alike, before the graduates broke into the biggest cheers of the morning. Morehouse said it is the single largest gift to the college.
Smith, who received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony, had already announced a $1.5 million gift to the school. The pledge to eliminate student debt for the class of 2019 is estimated to be $40 million.
Smith said he expected the recipients to sa国际传媒減ay it forwardsa国际传媒� and said he hoped that sa国际传媒渆very class has the same opportunity going forward.sa国际传媒�
In the weeks before graduating from Morehouse on Sunday, 22-year-old finance major Aaron Mitchom drew up a spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take him to pay back his $200,000 in student loans sa国际传媒� 25 years at half his monthly salary, per his calculations.
In an instant, that number vanished. Mitchom, sitting in the crowd, wept.
sa国际传媒淚 can delete that spreadsheet,sa国际传媒� he said in an interview after the commencement. sa国际传媒淚 donsa国际传媒檛 have to live off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was shocked. My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off.sa国际传媒�
His mother, Tina Mitchom, was also shocked. Eight family members, including Mitchomsa国际传媒檚 76-year-old grandmother, took turns over four years co-signing on the loans that got him across the finish line.
sa国际传媒淚t takes a village,sa国际传媒� she said. sa国际传媒淚t now means he can start paying it forward and start closing this gap a lot sooner, giving back to the college and thinking about a succession plansa国际传媒� for his younger siblings.
Morehouse College president David A. Thomas said the gift would have a profound effect on the studentssa国际传媒� futures.
sa国际传媒淢any of my students are interested in going into teaching, for example, but leave with an amount of student debt that makes that untenable,sa国际传媒� Thomas said in an interview. sa国际传媒淚n some ways, it was a liberation gift for these young men that just opened up their choices.sa国际传媒�
Errin Haines Whack, The Associated Press
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