As May gives way to June, the last college grad ceremonies are wrapping up and the last parties are coming to a close. Now the job hunt for recent grads begins in earnest — with the looming specter of student loan payments drawing ever closer.

Today’s average student debt is around $37,000. But in America’s largest state, it wasn’t that long ago that any student could get a world-class, debt-free education — regardless of their economic background.

That state was California, and Gail Leondar-Wright was one of those students.

Gail came from a middle-class family — her dad was an engineer and her mom a stay-at-home parent. She attended UC Berkeley from 1976 to 1980, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in theater. At the time, the elite public school was tuition-free and required a mere $600 per year in fees, or just under $1,400 in today’s dollars.

After graduating, she got her master’s, spent 10 years working in theater, and then launched a successful public relations firm still in operation today.

“I had one job — just go to school and get good grades,” she recalls. “If I’d had to work throughout school or graduated with a ton of debt, I’d never have been able to start a business or take a risk working in a low-wage field like theater.”