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After donating $1 million to Chicago Public Schools, Chance the Rapper paid a surprise visit to Mary E. Courtenay Language Arts Center in his hometown on Friday (March 24).

During the school’s job and career fair, the Grammy-winning rapper shared his inspiring story with the elementary school students and even sat in on one teacher’s class as they were learning about math.

“He spoke to all of us about his career and told us to stay in school,”

13-year-old Joanne Tablas told DNAinfo.

“He inspired us to try to make our dreams come true. It was exciting,”

added Ethan Nguyen, 12.

But they were not the only students inspired by Lil Chano. Recently, a trio of Chicago students thanked Chance for his $1 million donation in an open letter.

“We as Chicago Public School students would like to thank you for the supportive donation to our schools,” they wrote. “As we all know, CPS has been struggling financially, and your donation has really given us a push to get to where we need to be and possibly motivate others to give back to the community as well. This is only one of the many things that you have done to improve our Chicago.”

Chance, who was recently named “one of the world’s greatest leaders” by Fortune, is set to headline his hometown festival Lollapalooza in August.