An Indian-American NC State commencement speaker just paid off every senior's final-year student loans

Graduation ceremonies follow a familiar script. Someone stands up and says something inspiring about the future. Everyone files out clutching their diplomas. The class of 2026 at NC State University’s Wilson College of Textiles thought they were about to receive just that. What they got was something different.

More than 170 students filled Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh on May 8 as commencement speaker Anil Kochhar stepped to the mic. Kochhar, whose father was a member of the school's 1950 and 1952 classes, had been invited to speak at the Wilson College of Textiles graduation. But he hadn't come just to talk.

Kochhar said he and his wife, Marilyn, will pay off all student loans taken out by graduates of Wilson College of Textiles in the 2025-2026 school year. The room exploded. According to Fortune, other publications noted that 176 bachelor’s degree recipients were helped by the gift, with another 26 master’s degree recipients also receiving relief.


“Marilyn and I hope that all of you leave Reynolds Coliseum today not only with a degree but with greater freedom to pursue your goals, take risks, and build the lives you've worked so hard to achieve,” Kochhar told the crowd.

Why this hits differently right now
For anyone who’s watched a student loan balance dominate every career decision they’ve ever made, the importance of that announcement can’t be overstated.

Today, millennials are the largest group of student loan borrowers in the US, with 14 million student loan borrowers and $476 billion in total debt at an average of $34,000 per borrower. And the effect extends far beyond the monthly payments.

A frequently cited study in the Journal of Public Economics by researchers at Princeton University and UC Berkeley found that student debt doesn’t just strain finances; it actually influences job choices for graduates. The study found that graduates with larger loan burdens were more likely to take higher-paying jobs and less likely to enter lower-paying fields they might otherwise have preferred, including public service and nonprofit work.

A Bankrate survey found that nearly 60% of US adults with student loan debt have postponed important financial steps because of their debt. For Gen Z and millennial borrowers, that number increases to 70%, with loans keeping them from saving for retirement, buying homes, or paying off other debt.

What Kochhar gave those graduates was beyond money. It was options.

The story behind the gift
The donation was deeply personal. Kochhar’s father, Prakash Chand Kochhar, came to NC State 80 years ago to study textiles and is believed to be only the second student from India to attend the university. The elder Kochhar graduated in textile manufacturing in 1950 and did his post-graduation in the same subject in 1952. He then pursued his career in the US and abroad.

He died in 1985, but you could sense his presence in that coliseum four decades later.

In his speech, Anil Kochhar said, “My father could not have imagined this moment. Not just me standing here, but all of you sitting here. A new generation, shaped by a different world, but connected by the same spirit of possibility that brought him here decades ago.”

Kochhar was co-founder and vice chairman of Outcomes Health Information Solutions, a health technology company. In March 2026, Kochhar and his wife created three endowments in his father’s memory: the Prakash Chand Kochhar Dean’s Chair Endowment, the Prakash Chand Kochhar Endowed Faculty fund, and the Prakash Chand Kochhar Graduate Support Endowment.

What it means to the graduates
The announcement was personal in its own right for many in that arena.

“As a daughter of immigrants myself, this money helps me and my family a lot, and I'm really fortunate to have an opportunity like this,” summed up Alyssa D’Costa, a major in fashion and textile management.

Kochhar's philanthropy “provides substantial reductions in students' debt load, which will make a meaningful impact on their ability to pursue careers with reduced debt burdens,” a spokesperson for NC State told Fortune.

That's exactly the point. When debt is not a factor in which door you walk through, then it’s your choice. On a May afternoon in Raleigh, two hundred young people walked out of a coliseum with that freedom given to them by a man honoring the immigrant father who had chased the same dream before them.