On May 12, 2022, Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel and his wife, Miranda Kerr, founder of beauty brand KORA Organics, sent an amazing message to alumni of Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles: With a private donation to the school, the couple will pay off a debt Student loan in full for all 285 alumni.
Neither the college nor Spiegel disclosed the exact dollar amount that was donated, but the college He said It was the largest single gift she had ever received, surpassing the previous record of $10 million. In California alone, more than 3.8 million student loan borrowers are almost collectively indebted $150 billion. Total student loan debt in the United States stands at $1.76 trillion.
“The Otis College of Art and Design is an exceptional institution that encourages young creatives to find their artistic voices and thrive in a variety of industries and professions,” Spiegel and Kerr—both recipients of Otis honorary degrees—said that day. “It is an honor for our family to give back and support the Class of 2022, and we hope that this gift will enable graduates to pursue their passions, contribute to the world, and inspire humanity for years to come.”
Spiegel, a Stanford graduate, attended classes at Otis while in high school, which he says were formative for his career. “(Otis) changed my life and made me feel at home,” Spiegel said He said. “I felt pushed and challenged to grow up surrounded by talented artists and designers, and we were all in this together.”
The gift will be “life-changing” for many alumni, Charles Hirschhorn, president of Otis College, he said in a statement last May, adding that student debt is “burdening students” — more than 90% of students at Otis receive financial aid.
“We hope this donation will provide the relief they deserve and enable them to pursue their aspirations and careers, carry that generosity forward, and become the next leaders in our community,” Hirschhorn said. (Otis College did not respond in time to luckcomment request).
While the cascading effect of Spiegel and Kerr’s gift would take decades to prove, one thing is certain: the alumni have all shared their “much-deserved rest” in spades. luck I spoke with three members of the Otis College Class of 2022, all of whom broke out into screams and tears of disbelief on their graduation day and now think more often of their good fortune—and the initial deal the classes before and after had.
The alumni discussed the impact their gift had had on their finances and how their lives had changed in the 12 months since they heard the unfathomable good news.
Farhan Fallahifrouzi, 23: You helped me buy a house
Courtesy of Farhan Fallahifiroozi
Farhan Fallahifrozi, 23, who studied fashion design at Otis, says he didn’t understand how great the news was until he started his job after graduation as an assistant designer at bridal shop Watters, where he works with people who have paid off their loans for 20 to 30 years.
“It’s such a relief — I can put my money aside and use it for something else,” he says. This other thing ended up being massive; Six months after graduation, he bought his parents a house in Dallas.
“I just needed to get 3 percent down, and we were already paying rent, so I thought, ‘Why don’t we put it in something that might be ours eventually?'” explains Falafel Rozi, who lives with his family. “
He says the experience opened his eyes to the absurdity of the cost of education and made him more curious about how money works. He went down a rabbit hole to learn about business and money, and set it on a path of, “to have plans, to set goals, and hopefully get out of this rat race.” He adds that while he loves 9 to 5, it’s not what he wants to do forever.
For the time being, Falafelrouzi says, his freedom and choice stemmed from his lack of financial hardship. He says he currently has about three months’ worth of savings—an unimaginable amount, had he been able to afford loans.
“If I had that responsibility, I think it would control a lot of my decisions,” he says.
Mika Tomei, 24: It allowed me to pursue an artistic career
Courtesy of Mika Tomei
Meka Tome compares Spiegel’s gift to winning the lottery; Without it, she says her loans would have run into the hundreds of thousands. “I can’t even fathom how much time this will take to bear fruit,” she adds.
Just knowing you’ll have to repay loans is in itself paralyzing, she says: “It’s a million times worse to do.”
Tommy graduated from Otis with a BA in Sculpture and New Species. On her way to graduation, she assumed she would put art aside to work full time in a better-paying field that would help her pay off her loans.
Now, she lives in Los Angeles, works at her alma mater as a photography major and freelances as a photographer. She is even considering a master’s program. she
By suddenly making her artistic aspirations tangible, The Gift gave her a chance to believe in herself, she said. Her family never thought anything would come of her degree, she said, but they have come to see it as a righteous pursuit now that it is not a financial quest.
“Being an artist isn’t the easiest thing to pursue, so I think the hope he’s given us all is really just—I can’t even put it into words. It’s unparalleled.”
It’s not for nothing, she adds, that Otis is a really expensive school. “Whoever really needed financial assistance could already be in the world like we are now,” she says. “Art students in particular are really determined to change the world the way they know how, and that can extend through everything.”
Ashley Alarcon, 22: It gave me the opportunity to save for my own company one day
Courtesy of Ashley Alarcon
Like many of Otis’ students, Ashley Alarcón was the first in her family to attend college. Private school tuition was a difficult cost for her family to bear, the head of fashion design recalls.
She says students at Otis become eligible for scholarships as their education progresses. So she had to pay the entire cost of her tuition loans in her first year before getting two scholarships to help shore up the differences.
When she received a job offer to be an assistant designer for the womenswear team at Levi Strauss & Co shortly before graduation, she was relieved that she would be able to start paying back her loan as soon as she graduated. When Spiegel’s gift was announced during graduation, she was shocked.
The first thing she realized was that her soon-to-be would be Ha Money, for the budget at will, rather than first and foremost repaying the loan. “It was such a relief,” she says.
Alarcon currently lives in a San Francisco apartment with another Otis ’22 grad from her program, who also has significant debt — without which they don’t think they’ll be able to afford to live out of their homes. “We are completely comfortable with the age we are in; we can pay the rent, we eat well, and we are very grateful.”
Starting to settle down immediately, she says, pushed her further down the line than if she had started out in debt. Her ultimate goal is to establish her own brand, which would be another amount of debt to bear.
“But the fact that I can now build, save, and budget differently is very helpful in helping me be more career-driven and more confident,” she says. “Mostly because I’ve already reached a level that I thought I wouldn’t be at a few more years ago.”