Will Ferrell might be everyone’s favorite clown, but he’s also an incredible human being — and he knows the value of education, which is why he surprised a college student named Samantha Watts with a $100,000 check for her college tuition during an appearance on the Today show.

Samantha is going to college in Ithaca, and when she appeared alongside Head Kotb, she thought she was only a finalist, until she was given the news she was actually winner!

She’s currently studying speech pathology and will need to go to grad school, but when her father was diagnosed with cancer, she struggled financially. “My dad actually … is just recovered from esophogeal cancer and a lot of our money had to go towards that last year,” she explained. “It would be life changing for me.”

Watch her get the news in the video above!