A paying start of the year speaker pays student debt in class

Now we know exactly what it takes to face Angela Bassett: Forty million dollars, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

During a day of hard-earned celebration for hundreds of families, Morehouse has exceeded expectations in terms of black excellence

After the casual conversation of the ethereal Bassett, Robert F. Smith, technology investor and billionaire philanthropist, received an honorary doctorate at the Sunday graduation ceremony at Morehouse College.

Smith is the founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm founded in 2000. In 2017, Vista Equity Partners managed more than $ 30 billion in assets. In 2018, he was declared the richest African-American by Forbes magazine, surpassing Oprah Winfrey.

Smith, who had already promised $ 1.5 million to the school, was not to be late for the university that had invited him to speak at the beginning.

Smith has therefore announced that his family would allocate a grant to pay the student debt of all the promotion of 2019.

"It's my class," Smith said, "and I know my class will pay for that."

According to the AJC, Tonga Releford, whose son Charles graduated from the 2019 promotion, estimated his son's student debt at about $ 70,000.

"I think it's Mother's Day again," said Releford of his $ 40 million donation, which is considered the largest donation ever given. university or its students.

On social media, the news was quickly greeted with jokes:

Congratulations to the 2019 Morehouse promotion and graduates around the world. If your alma mater could not find a speaker to pay your debt, it could be worse: Rutgers misspelled my name on my official diploma.