A Billionaire Paid Off the Student Loans for an Entire Graduating Class
Here's why you invite a billionaire to speak at your graduation . . .
Robert F. Smith is the founder and CEO of the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Last year,"Forbes"ranked him as the 163rd richest person in America . . . worth about $4.4 billion. He's one of only 13 black billionaires in the world.
This year his fortune is up to$5 billion.
A few months ago, he donated $1.5 million to Morehouse College in Atlanta, which is a historically black school. Then yesterday, they gave him an honorary doctorate, and he spoke at the commencement in front of about 400 graduating seniors.
And during his speech, he announced he was making another donation . . . to pay off the entire graduating class's STUDENT LOANS. The crowd went nuts when he announced it, but it took a second.
It was almost like they thought they'd heard him wrong, because it's a MASSIVE amount of money.
According to one estimate, it'll wipe out roughly $40 MILLION of student debt. And Morehouse College says it's the largest single donation the school has ever been associated with.