Jesse Williams is known for his passionate acting, but according to a recent announcement, he’s set on helping make the next generation of professionals successful as well.
AfroTech recently reported that the actor is teaming up with Scholly, a leading scholarship app, to raise awareness of their new initiative — Pay It Off Fund — which will allow four students to earn $25,000 each to pay off student loans.
This is timely.
The LA Times recently reported that about 45 million current and former students carry $1.76 trillion in debt.
In an effort to alleviate some of this monumental strain, Scholly’s founder Christopher Gray told Afrotech that he launched the initiative as a way to help in a time where it’s most needed.
“It has always been Scholly’s mission to help as many students as possible access financial freedom,” Gray said in an exclusive Afrotech interview. “Since launching in 2015 and helping families across the country receive scholarship opportunities, we realized that there were still many ways to help students throughout their journey to pursue higher education and pay for it. For most people, paying for college doesn’t end when they’re awarded scholarships or when they graduate. Student loan debt follows many people into senior citizenship, possibly creating a lifetime of missed opportunities, wealth, homeownership, travel, etc. Through our various programs and partnerships, our goal is to eliminate debt to, in turn, help people create their own financial freedom.”
Gray explained to Afrotech that “partnering with advocates like Jesse Williams, and offering an opportunity to pay off some of that student loan debt is absolutely essential and critical in advancing the work that we do.”