NC State graduates got a huge surprise at commencement. Here's what to know

Graduating seniors at NC State University’s Wilson College of Textiles received an unexpected gift at their commencement ceremony: full cancellation of their final-year student loans. The surprise announcement came from commencement speaker Anil Kochhar, whose family has deep ties to the school.

Here are key takeaways:

• Disbelief turned to cheers and a standing ovation when commencement speaker Anil Kochhar announced he and his wife Marilyn would cover all senior-year education loans for Wilson College of Textiles graduates from the 2025-26 academic year. Students sat stunned inside Reynolds Coliseum as the news sank in that their final-year debt was being forgiven on the spot.
• Fashion and textile management major Alyssa D’Costa was among the astonished students, telling reporters that as a daughter of immigrants, the money would help her and her family significantly. Kochhar said he hoped graduates would leave the ceremony with “greater freedom to pursue your goals, take risks and build the lives you’ve worked so hard to achieve.”
• Kochhar made the gift in honor of his father, Prakash Chand Kochhar, who traveled from Punjab, India to Raleigh in 1946 to study textile manufacturing at NC State. The elder Kochhar earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Wilson College and met his wife, a girl from Elkin, while studying there.
• The 69-year-old Raleigh native attended Broughton High School and started college at NC State before transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill, but he told The News & Observer where his allegiances lie. “It’s not Chapel Hill, it’s NC State’s Wilson College for life,” he said. His father willed that a scholarship be set up in his name at Wilson College after his death in 1986, and the dean of the school is now known as the Prakash Chand Kochhar Dean.
• Kochhar now lives in California, where he works as a certified actuary for Axene Health Partners. He also supports Daraja Academy, which provides educational opportunities for girls in Kenya, and said the viral response to his NC State gift has energized him to find new ways to be useful.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists, including politics editor Jordan Schrader. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.