Watch: Tears of joy flow as generous donor announces whopping $1bn donation to New York medical school

In the United States, student loans are one of the heaviest burdens people deal with. For those in medical schools, these could mean $135,000-$440,000 in debt, plus interest. Starting in August, medical students in a New York-based medical college will be free of this debt, thanks to a wealthy philanthropist.

93-year-old Dr Ruth Gottesman has donated a whopping one billion dollars to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx borough, as reported by the New York Times on Monday.

Tears of joy

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Addressing a gathering of students, Dr Gottesman, a former professor at the school, announced: "I’m happy to share with you that starting in August this year, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine will be tuition free."

Her announcement was met with thunderous applause, whoop(s) and tears of joy. A video of the moment iswidely circulating on social media platforms, including X.

Check it out here:

Sizeabledonation

As per BBC, Dr Gottesman's contribution is among the largest ever donations given to a US educational institute, and the largest ever to a medical school.

She received the money from her late husband, David Gottesman aka Sandy, the founder of a prominent investment house and an early investor in Warren Buffett's multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.

In a statement, Gottesman said that the doctors who train at Einstein go on to "provide the finest healthcare to communities here in the Bronx and all over the world".

Thanking her husband she added: "I am very thankful to my late husband, Sandy, for leaving these funds in my care, and l feel blessed to be given the great privilege of making this gift to such a worthy cause."

David, aka Sandy Gottesman, died in 2022 aged96, leaving Ruth with a sizeable Berkshire Hathaway stock portfolio with instructions to "do whatever you think is right with it".

"I wanted to fund students at Einstein so that they would receive free tuition," she said, adding that thanks to the portfolio she immediately realised "There was enough money to do that in perpetuity."

She shared that she wonders what her husband would've thought of the donation and remarked, "I hope he's smiling and not frowning."

"He gave me the opportunity to do this, and I think he would be happy - I hope so."

Thanking Ruth Gottesman for her generous donation, Dr Philip Ozuah, the president and chief executive of Montefiore Einstein, which oversees Einstein College and the Montefiore Health System, said: "I am profoundly grateful to Dr Gottesman for this historic and transformational gift."

"I believe we can change healthcare history when we recognise that access is the path to excellence," he added in a statement.

(With inputs from agencies)