‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Mattea Roach Can’t Believe She Can Pay Off Her Student Loans With Her First Victory

When Mattea Roach made it onto Jeopardy!, the Canadian contestant assumed that if she managed to best her competitors, it would take at least a few wins until she made enough to pay off her student loans. However, as Jeopardy! fans saw when Roach’s episode aired this week, the Halifax native made a savvy wager during Final Jeopardy and walked away with a whopping $32,000. Not only was that enough to make Roach the champ, but she can already eliminate her student loan debt.

However, Roach has had to keep her big win a secret since January when she originally filmed the episode, which hasn’t been easy. “I don’t know that I would win any award for best poker face, but I think I tried my best,” she told the CBC before revealing that she still hasn’t fully processed her major windfall:

Even months later, she said it hasn’t really sunk in. “I still get chills hearing myself say that I will be able to, when I receive the money, pay off my student loan with the money from last night’s game, like I still can’t believe it,” she said.

Keeping her Jeopardy! win a secret became quite the task when Roach’s parents threw a huge watch party, as proud parents are wont to do.

“Some extended family, like my mom’s aunt, uncle and cousin, live in Marion Bridge and decided to get a group together to go watch,” Roach said. “There were some folks there who I’ve never even met that are just friends and community members up there.”