In Raleigh, North Carolina, a college graduation turned into something students at North Carolina State University will likely talk about for the rest of their lives.

What began as a classic commencement ceremony for graduates of the Wilson College of Textiles ended with cheers, tears, and a surprise announcement that instantly changed the financial futures of hundreds of students.

As the grads gathered inside Reynolds Coliseum on May 8, commencement speaker Anil Kochhar shared that he and his wife, Marilyn, would pay off all final-year student loans for the graduating class.

The announcement came as a tribute to Kochhar’s late father, Prakash Chand Kochhar, whose own journey to Raleigh began nearly 80 years ago.

A tribute decades in the making

Kochhar explained that his father traveled from Punjab, India, to North Carolina in 1946 on a scholarship to study textile manufacturing at NC State. At the time, he was believed to be only the second Indian student ever to enroll at the university.

His education eventually led to an international career in textiles before his death in 1985. Years later, his son returned to the same institution to honor that legacy in a way no one in the audience expected.

“It is my privilege to announce today that, in honor of my father Prakash Chand Kochhar, Marilyn and I are providing a graduation gift to cover all the final-year education loans incurred by Wilson College graduates during the 2025–26 academic year,” Kochhar announced.

“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,” he added.

You can watch the video, courtesy of the New York Post, below: 

Students were stunned by the announcement

The crowd immediately erupted into applause as students realized what the gift meant. For many students, that payoff will grant more freedom, opening doors that may have previously felt out of reach.

One student, fashion and textile management major Alyssa D’Costa, explained how meaningful the gesture was to her family.

“As a daughter of immigrants, this money helps me and my family a lot, and I’m really fortunate to have an opportunity like this,” D’Costa told the university.

Viewers were moved, too

The emotional response from students spread quickly online, with many people praising the Kochhar family for investing directly in graduates at a time when student debt continues to weigh heavily on young adults nationwide.

“I imagine there are some of those graduates who really really needed that. Just lifted a burden off them. You have honored your father for certain,” wrote one YouTube viewer. 

Another said, “This is truly beautiful: Genuinely what a kind soul.”

Why this tribute was extra special

The Kochhar family has previously contributed to the college through scholarships and academic funding, but this particular gift carried a different emotional weight.

During his remarks, Kochhar reflected on how unlikely the moment would have once seemed to his father.

“My father could not have imagined this moment. Not just me standing here, but all of you sitting here,” he said. “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.”

He also described the courage it took for his father to leave India and begin a new chapter in Raleigh many years ago.

“He could not have known where that journey would lead,” Kochhar said. “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.”

For students crossing the graduation stage that afternoon, the ceremony became more than a celebration of academic achievement. It also marked the beginning of adulthood with a little more breathing room and served as a reminder of how one act of generosity can ripple through an entire community.

While a bottle of bubbles might seem out of place in a hospital setting, you might be surprised to learn that, for thousands of children around the world born with cleft lip and palate, they can be a helpful tool in comprehensive cleft care. Lilia, who was born with cleft lip and palate in 2020, is one of the many patients who received this care. 

As a toddler, Lilia underwent two surgeries to treat cleft lip and palate with Operation Smile’s surgical program in Puebla, Mexico. Because of Operation Smile’s comprehensive care, it wasn’t long before her personality transformed: Lilia went from a quiet and withdrawn toddler to an exuberant, curious explorer, babbling, expressing herself with a variety of sounds, and engaging with others like any child her age. 

Lilia is now a healthy five-year-old, with the same cheerful attitude and boundless energy. Her progress is the result of care at every level, from surgery to speech therapy to ongoing support at home—but it’s also evidence that small, sustained interventions throughout it all can make a meaningful difference. 

Cleft Conditions: A Global Problem

Since 1982, Operation Smile has provided cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to more than 500,000 patients worldwide with the help of generous volunteers and donors. Cleft conditions are congenital conditions, meaning they are present at birth. With cleft lip and palate, the lip or the roof of the mouth do not form fully during fetal development. Cleft conditions put children at risk for malnutrition and poor weight gain, since their facial structure can make feeding challenging. But cleft conditions can have an enormous social impact as well: Common difficulties with speech can leave kids socially isolated and unable to meet the same developmental milestones as their peers. 

Surgery is a vital step in treating cleft conditions, but it’s also just one part of a much larger solution. Organizations like Operation Smile emphasize the importance of multi-disciplinary teams that provide comprehensive, long-term care to patients across many years. This approach, which includes oral care, speech therapy, nutritional support, and psychosocial care, not only aids in physical recovery from surgery but also helps children develop the skills and confidence to eat easily, speak clearly, and engage in everyday life. This ensures that each patient receives the full range of support they need to thrive. 

A Playful (and Powerful) Solution

Throughout a patient’s care, simple tools like bubbles can play a meaningful role from start to finish. 

Immediately before surgery, children are often in a new and unfamiliar environment far from home, some of them experiencing a hospital setting for the first time. When care providers or loved ones blow bubbles, it’s a simple yet effective technique: Not only are the children soothed and distracted, the bubbles also help create a sense of joy and playfulness that eases their anxiety. 

In speech therapy, bubbles can take on an even more important role. Blowing bubbles requires controlled airflow, as well as the ability to form a rounded “O” shape with the lips, which are skills that children with cleft conditions may struggle to develop. Practicing these skills with bubbles allows children to gently strengthen their facial muscles, improve breath control, and support the motor skills needed for speech development. Beyond that, blowing bubbles can help kids connect with their parents or providers in a way that’s playful, comforting, and accessible even for very young patients. 

Finally, bubbles often follow patients with cleft conditions home in the “smile bags” that each patient receives when the surgical procedure is finished. Smile bags, which help continue speech therapy outside of the hospital setting, can contain language enrichment booklets, a mirror, oxygen tubing, and bubbles. While regular practice with motor skills can help with physical recovery, small acts of play help as well, giving kids space to simply enjoy themselves and join in on what peers are able to do.

Bubbles at Home and Beyond

Today, because of Operation Smile’s dedication to comprehensive cleft care, Lilia is now able to make friends and speak clearly, all things that could have been difficult or impossible before. Instead of a childhood defined by limitation, Lilia—and others around the world—can look forward to a childhood filled with joy, learning, discovery, friends, and new possibilities.  

CTA: Lilia’s life was changed for the better with the care she received through Operation Smile. Find out how you can make an impact in other children’s lives by visiting operationsmile.org today. 

An April 2 Washington County School Board meeting in Tennessee took an uncomfortable turn after high school student Hannah Campbell finished delivering her remarks. Seated with the board and directly next to the superintendent, Campbell confidently participated in a discussion with members after presenting research she had conducted on other schools.

That’s when the board member seated next to her, Keith Ervin, reached over, put his arm around her, and said, “God, you’re hot, you know that? Where do you go to school at?”

The comment is not a baseless allegation. The interaction was caught on video. A few people in the room laughed, Campbell herself quickly brushed off the comment, and the meeting continued as scheduled. Any viewer watching the meeting in person or on YouTube could clearly see what happened.

To many, it was clear that a line had been crossed, and the mood in the room was tense afterward.

The board chair, Annette Buchanan, called an emergency meeting the following week, where members voted to censure Ervin—a public rebuke meant to show that they did not support his comments. But otherwise, as an elected official, Ervin would keep his position on the board.

For his part, Ervin issued a statement apologizing for the incident but insisting that he had not meant any harm.

“I understand why people are reacting the way they are. But that’s not the full conversation, not even close,” he wrote. “When I mentioned she was hot, I meant she was on a roll. It was nothing to do with her appearance.”

The board’s response was not good enough for Campbell, who was also unconvinced by the apology statement.

Student boldly appears at another board meeting to speak up for herself

Campbell refused to shrink or hide. Instead, she returned to a school board meeting on May 7 and confronted not just Ervin, but the entire board, in a courageous four-minute speech.

“I do not forgive you,” she said to Ervin, adding, “The failure to act on the board’s behalf was and is equivalent to his actions, and it has hurt me just as much. To watch the chairperson be so quick to bang her gavel, to control the public, yet not use it once to control her own peer was disgusting … I believe that you are all cowards.”

She sarcastically thanked the board at the end of her speech for showing her that she would do well not to trust adults and authority figures to stand up for her—that she would have to do it herself.

The student’s brave stand earned the support of the community

Campbell was wrong about one thing: There were others in the community who were willing to stand up for her.

One irate father vowed to raise enough money to oust every single board member should they fail to act. “Would you want your kid around that guy without a camera around? I wouldn’t,” he said.

Meanwhile, an online petition calling for Ervin’s removal from the board, along with Superintendent Jerry Boyd’s, has collected nearly 7,000 signatures.

Even more enraging to parents, students, and community members is the fact that Ervin has been accused of inappropriate conduct before. According to WCYB-TV, records show that in 2009, Ervin made a “lewd, juvenile gesture of a sexual nature” in front of students and teachers at a school. He was censured then and barred from school property unless accompanied.

Campbell’s willingness to use her voice may be the difference between a censure and something that makes a real difference for all the students who come before the board after her.

Many people delight in logic puzzles and the brain challenge they offer. But one of the most studied logic tests has proven persistently befuddling for people across the board.

Developed in 1966, the Wason Selection Task has a high failure rate despite its seeming simplicity. According to Michael Stevens of VSauce, studies have shown that somewhere between 90% and 96% of people are unable to come up with the correct answer.

What exactly is this test? There are various versions of it, but let’s look at the original one that Peter Wason created.

You have four cards in front of you labeled A, G, 7, and 8, like this:

Each card has a letter on one side and a number on the other. Your task is to determine which cards you would need to turn over to judge whether the following rule is true: If there is an A on one side, there is a 7 on the other.

That’s it. Sounds simple enough, right? Then you start working your way through the reasoning, and your brain starts to feel a bit sticky.

Even a Cambridge math professor had to backtrack on the test

Hannah Fry, a British mathematician and University of Cambridge professor, went through this task with Stevens on their joint YouTube channel, The Rest Is Science. Fry said she had encountered a version of the test before and gotten it wrong the first time, but she didn’t remember what trap she had fallen into or why.

This time, she walked through the logic aloud and figured it out. (If you want to try solving it yourself, go for it. Spoilers are below.)

Here’s how Fry worked through the problem in real time:

“So, right, you know that........

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