Billionaire during commencement address: I'll pay off your student debt
Billionaire investor Robert F. Smith earned some stunned looks on Sunday during his commencement address at Morehouse College.
He told the graduating students he'd pay off their student debt.
"On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country: We're going to put a little fuel in your bus," Smith sad.
He continued: "I've got the alumni over here. And this is a challenge to alumni. This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans."
The class at the all-male, historically African-American college erupted into cheers. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., applauded the move and noted her father attended the Atlanta college.
"Wow," she tweeted. "What a love-power move by Robert Smith, I believe it’s the start of something major."
Wow. What a love-power move by Robert Smith. I believe it’s the start of something major. I’m grateful for what Mr. Smith, who purchased my father’s birth home for the National Park Service, is doing for @Morehouse, which happens to be Daddy’s alma mater. https://t.co/uRstRi49fr
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) May 19, 2019
Tonga Releford, whose son Charles graduated on Sunday and who estimated his student loans totaled $70,000, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I feel like it's Mother's Day all over again"
Smith earned an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony.
@RFS_Vista May have broken the Internet with his generosity and charge to pay it forward. https://t.co/6dsfw2kToi
— Morehouse College (@Morehouse) May 19, 2019
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