What would you do if you got your first-ever $10,000 bonus?
Surely, most would take the money and run. However, this man did something a little bit different — he made a real change in people’s lives.
44-year-old Grant Rivera is the Superintendent of the Marietta School District in Georgia (he has been since 2016), and apparently, he is eligible for the bonus every three years if he receives a satisfactory performance review.
After doing a great job, he received the money, but he didn’t use it on himself. Instead, he used it to pay for his students’ pricey college applications (which can get pretty damn pricey these days).
The bonus is being donated to the Marietta Schools Foundation, where it will help students who apply to colleges ahead of their regular application deadlines.
“Any senior who wants to apply early decision or early action to the college of their choice, then I will cover the cost of college application fees,” Rivera said. “Philosophically, it was a no brainer for me.”
“Kids on average will apply to six or seven places… That’s a lot of money, when it’s $75, $100…” The school’s principal Keith Ball said. “So adding all of that up for a couple of kids, or even a handful of kids, is a ton of money. But I think it’s going to really break the glass ceiling.”
“There’s some colleges, particularly selective colleges, that are taking 50% or more of their freshman class at early decision, so we just want our kids to have the same opportunities,” college advising counselor Brandi Smith added.
“At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to do the early application process because I was scared to take the risk,” senior student Julie Perez Sosa said. “Right now it feels like there was a door that was open to me so that even if I am scared to take the chance, I’m not losing anything.”
A couple of press outlets picked up on the news, since it’s so rare that someone would decide to do this.
Rivera spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “I don’t believe that a bonus provided by the board should be earned on the backs of the teachers. My hope is that it’s an incentive for kids to do the right thing.”
There are 500 high schoolers in the graduating class, and Rivera estimates that about 150 to 200 of them will apply for college. If the amount of college application fees go over his $10,000 bonus, Rivera says he plans to pay out of pocket and that any extra fees will be covered. Conversely, if there is extra money leftover after all of the applications are complete, the remainder will go to funding college bus tours in Georgia.
See the full video below.
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