Students of batch 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia’s Morehouse college got something they would’ve never imagined in their dreams. According to BBC News, a billionaire investor named Robert F. Smith just promised to pay off all of their student loans worth $10 million (for close to 400 students).
Wiping out student debt for an entire class of the historically all-male black school in Atlanta, Smith announced this philanthropic act while addressing students in the college.
Mr. Smith, 56, has a personal net worth of around $5bn according to Forbes and dedicated this act of generosity to his previous generations, claiming:
On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus. This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.
Reacting to this news, Aaron Mitchom, 22, who wept and couldn’t believe the news, saying:
I was shocked, my heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off.
Later, Morehouse College president David A Thomas was quoted by CNN as saying:
When you have to service debt, the choices about what you can go do in the world are constrained. [The grant] gives them the liberty to follow their dreams, their passions.
Making the news official to the world, Emmy-award winning producer Marcus Smith tweeted:
For someone who was always worried about paying off his debts, coming forward and giving the students this gift of generosity is something that reminds us humanity is alive.
