A donor wiped out the final-year student loan debts of every graduating senior at North Carolina State University’s Wilson College of Textiles during their commencement ceremony earlier this month, a gift estimated to be worth between $4m and $8m.
Anil Kochhar, an Indian-American entrepreneur and alumnus of the college, made the surprise announcement on 8 May 2026 as he delivered the keynote address to 202 graduates inside the William Neal Reynolds Coliseum. The offer covers all senior-year loans taken out by the 176 students receiving bachelor’s degrees and the 26 students receiving master’s degrees.
“I hope that all of you leave … today not only with a degree but with greater freedom to pursue your goals, take risks and build the lives that you’ve worked so hard to achieve,” Kochhar told the crowd, prompting loud cheers, applause and a standing ovation.
A transformative windfall for graduates
The gift arrives at a moment when roughly 43 million people in the US carry student loan debt totalling nearly $1.7tn. For the small fraction of borrowers who have had their balances forgiven, the relief is often described as transformative, opening doors to new careers, financial stability and long-delayed life plans.
Among those directly affected is Alyssa D’Costa, a graduate of the college. “As a daughter of immigrants, this money helps me and my family a lot,” she said in a statement released by North Carolina State University.
David Hinks, the dean of the Wilson College of Textiles whose position is named after Kochhar’s late father, called the gesture “an extraordinary investment in our newest alumni”. Hinks, who was instrumental in facilitating the donation, said the college is committed to making education affordable, and the Kochhars’ gift underscores that priority.
The total estimated value of between $4m and $8m reflects the range of senior-year debt carried by the graduating class. The announcement was captured on video and quickly went viral across parts of the internet dedicated to sharing acts of kindness.
Inspired by a father’s journey
Kochhar and his wife, Marilyn, said they made the decision to clear the senior-year loans in honour of his father, Prakash Chand Kochhar, an alumnus of the institution whose life story embodies the opportunities that education can create.
Prakash Chand Kochhar was born in Punjab, India, and in 1946 – 80 years before the ceremony – he travelled to Raleigh, North Carolina, to study textile manufacturing at what is now NC State. He was among the first Indian students to enrol at the university. He earned a bachelor’s degree in textile manufacturing in 1950 and a master’s degree in 1952, then built a career that took him across the US and around the world, including a role as sales service coordinator at Industrial Rayon in New York City.
“He could not have imagined the life it would create, or that one day his son would stand here speaking to a graduating class at the very institution that welcomed him,” said Anil Kochhar, co-founder and vice chairman of Outcomes Health Info Solutions, a US healthcare technology company. He has more than 40 years of experience in the healthcare industry, originally as a consulting actuary.
Kochhar said his father “would have been exhilarated” to see “a new generation, shaped by a different world – but connected by the same spirit of possibility that brought him here decades ago. And that’s what today represents.”
Prakash Chand Kochhar’s legacy at NC State runs deep. His wife, Christine Hayes Kochhar, established the Prakash Chand Kochhar Memorial Textile Scholarship in 1986. In March 2026 – just two months before the commencement – Anil and Marilyn Kochhar funded three new endowments in his honour: the Prakash Chand Kochhar Dean’s Chair Endowment, the Prakash Chand Kochhar Endowed Faculty Fund, and the Prakash Chand Kochhar Graduate Support Endowment.
“Graduates, the world is waiting for what you create – with no friggin’ last-year debt,” Kochhar told the class of 2026. “Go get ’em.”
