by Jeroslyn JoVonn
November 25, 2025
MacKenzie Scott’s $700 million price of HBCU donations brings new consideration to the mentorship she acquired from Toni Morrison.
Earlier than MacKenzie Scott met Jeff Bezos and have become a part of one of many world’s wealthiest {couples}, she was a younger author at Princeton learning beneath the steerage of literary legend Toni Morrison, a mentor who performed a job in shaping the early a part of her profession.
The novelist and philanthropist, now acknowledged because the world’s fortieth wealthiest individual, graduated from Princeton College in 1992 with a bachelor’s diploma in English. Throughout her time there, she studied beneath Nobel Prize–successful creator Toni Morrison, who grew to become a major mentor in her improvement, At the moment reviews.
After graduating, Scott relocated to New York Metropolis and utilized for a place on the hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. Morrison reportedly known as the agency with a glowing suggestion about her former pupil, serving to Scott land the job. It was there that Scott met Jeff Bezos, then a senior vp. The 2 started relationship and have been engaged inside three months. Six months later, they married and ultimately grew to become one of many wealthiest {couples} on this planet. The couple later divorced in 2019.
Scott continued creating her writing profession whereas supporting Bezos behind the scenes as he constructed Amazon. In 2005, she earned the American E-book Award for her debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright. She printed her second novel, Traps, in 2013, across the identical time Morrison mirrored on her expertise instructing Scott at Princeton, telling Vogue that she was “probably the greatest college students I’ve ever had in my creative-writing courses . . . actually probably the greatest.”
Now, given the billions Scott has donated to organizations and establishments advancing variety, fairness, and inclusion, together with greater than $700 million in historic items to HBCUs, like $80 million to Howard, $63 million to Morgan State, and $50 million to Virginia College, her philanthropic legacy additionally underscores the profound affect Morrison doubtless had on her early improvement.
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