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Commencement
speaker
billionaire
Robert
F. Smith
announces
he is
paying
all
student
debt for
the
Class of
2019
during
the
Morehouse
College
graduation
ceremony
In
Atlanta
on
Sunday,
May 19,
2019.
(Photo
by Steve
Schaefer/Special
to Tell
Us USA)
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Speaker
stuns
Morehouse
grads,
to pay
off $40M
student
debt
By
ERRIN
HAINES
WHACK
APNews.com
ATLANTA
- A
billionaire
technology
investor
stunned
the
entire
graduating
class at
Morehouse
College
when he
announced
at their
commencement
Sunday
that he
would
pay off
their
student
loans __
estimated
at $40
million.
Robert
F.
Smith,
this
year’s
commencement
speaker,
made the
announcement
while
addressing
nearly
400
graduating
seniors
of the
all-male
historically
black
college
in
Atlanta.
Smith,
who is
black,
is the
Founder
and CEO
of Vista
Equity
Partners,
a
private
equity
firm
that
invests
in
software,
data,
and
technology-driven
companies.
“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,”
the
investor
and
philanthropist
told
graduates
in his
morning
address.
“This is
my
class,
2019.
And my
family
is
making a
grant to
eliminate
their
student
loans.”
The
announcement
immediately
drew
stunned
looks
from
faculty
and
students
alike.
Then 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 “pay
it
forward”
and said
he hoped
that
“every
class
has the
same
opportunity
going
forward.”
“Because
we are
enough
to take
care of
our own
community,”
Smith
said.
“We are
enough
to
ensure
that we
have all
the
opportunities
of the
American
dream.
And we
will
show it
to each
other
through
our
actions
and
through
our
words
and
through
our
deeds.”
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 —
25 years
at half
his
monthly
salary,
per his
calculations.
In
an
instant,
that
number
vanished.
Mitchom,
sitting
in the
crowd,
wept.
“I
can
delete
that
spreadsheet,”
he said
in an
interview
after
the
commencement.
“I don’t
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.”
His
mother,
Tina
Mitchom,
was also
shocked.
Eight
family
members,
including
Mitchom’s
76-year-old
grandmother,
took
turns
over
four
years
co-signing
on the
loans
that got
him
across
the
finish
line.
“It
takes a
village,”
she
said.
“It 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
plan”
for his
younger
siblings.
Morehouse
College
president
David A.
Thomas
said the
gift
would
have a
profound
effect
on the
students’
futures.
“Many of
my
students
are
interested
in going
into
teaching,
for
example,
but
leave
with an
amount
of
student
debt
that
makes
that
untenable,”
Thomas
said in
an
interview.
“In some
ways, it
was a
liberation
gift for
these
young
men that
just
opened
up their
choices.”
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