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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana University Maurer School of Law Class of 2026 piled into the Delaney Moot Court Room around noon Tuesday — just five weeks before graduation — for a secret assembly.
They knew nothing. A handful of generic posters placed around campus and on social media aimed to generate some excitement: “A special event for graduating 3Ls” and “OMG!,” they said.
Jack Phillips, president of Maurer’s Student Bar Association, told The Indiana Lawyer that he assumed it was going to be another lunchtime pizza event to remind the class about something or, best case, that the school had crafted a massive photo album to share with the students. As the aspiring lawyers took their seats, a slideshow presentation was displayed on a big screen, showing photos taken of their class over the past three years.
Instead, Maurer Dean Christiana Ochoa told them they were each gifted $10,000.
The room remained silent, students told The Lawyer after.
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Then, a few hands began to clap. And before too long, cheering and tears filled the room.
“It was like an episode of Oprah,” Phillips said afterward.
A few hours after hearing the news, 3L candidate Kayla Behforouz said she still didn’t know how to process it all.
“It just really hasn’t even hit,” she told The Lawyer Tuesday afternoon. “This is a relief.”
According to the law school, an anonymous family gifted nearly $1.6 million to be split among the 154-member 2026 class.
“We hope this gift inspires recipients to pay it forward,” the donors said in a written statement Tuesday. “We consider it a great privilege to give and to support others.”
“This gift was made possible by donors deeply committed to our students’ success and to advancing the mission of the IU Maurer School of Law,” Ochoa said. “Their support is intended to give our 2026 graduates an early advantage by helping reduce the burden of educational debt.”
Ochoa’s emotional message arrived just a couple of days after Phillips applied for a federal graduate loan.
“The weight of becoming a full-blown professional is starting to be felt by our class, and part of that is paying off the debt,” he said Tuesday. “And for such a significant chip to be taken out of it, just with the snap of a finger, is more than welcome.”
Both Behforouz and Phillips are Hoosier natives but came to Maurer through different paths: Behforouz first attended the University of Southern California to study music composition, while Phillips attended IU from the outset.
After graduation, Behforouz plans to join Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP’s Chicago office, and Phillips is set to return to his former internship host, Eichhorn & Eichhorn LLP in Hammond.
Phillips said the donors’ charity gives him hope to keep going – and for what the school can be.
“What I think is really special about Mauer is how we help each other,” Phillips said. “Obviously, we all want to do well, and we all want to be on the right side of the curve, but at the end of the day, there’s just an unmistakable camaraderie at our school.”
Behforouz was shocked to hear about the gift, but she said she is not shocked that it happened in Bloomington.
“I know a lot of people of all walks of life kind of feel like everything’s falling apart right now, and nothing’s really certain. Is AI gonna take all of our jobs? What is the economy doing? Like, we’re at war all the time,” Behforouz said. “But this felt like a good reminder that when things happen like that, we just lock in and take care of each other.”
Behforouz hopes the gift inspires others.
“We need to show up for each other like this,” she said.
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