When students graduate debt-free

Back in 2019, Freddie Williams Jr. had a lot on his mind at his college graduation: "That's when, you know, it started really kicking in – hey, this is how much you owe, you're gonna have to start paying this back," he said.

Growing up on the south side of Chicago, he had dreamed of going to Morehouse, the historically Black college in Atlanta that counts Martin Luther King Jr. among its distinguished alumni. "Once I got accepted and saw that, hey, the money is being offered, [I] didn't have an idea of what I was really getting myself into," he said.

And then at commencement, Williams got the surprise of a lifetime, when billionaire businessman Robert F. Smith pledged to pay the student loans for the entire class, clearing some $34 million in student and parent debt. "We're gonna put a little fuel on your bus," Smith said.