Rihanna has been honoured with the 2017 Humanitarian of the Year award by Harvard University.
The 29-year-old pop star attended the ceremony at the Ivy League school on Tuesday to accept her award given by the director of the Harvard Foundation, Allen Counter. The ‘Work’ singer has been rewarded for her contribution to the charities she founded in Barbados.
The singer has created initiatives for health and education, including the Clara and Lionel Foundation Scholarship Program in which she founded to support the rights of Caribbean students. She gave a hilarious yet inspiring speech to the crowd, expressing her development on her charity work.
Rihanna began her speech saying “So I made it to Harvard” with excitement and added some sass with a hair flip. “Never thought I’d be able to say that in my life. But it feels good.” she stated. As she delivered her inspiring speech, she spoke about how helping people was a passion of hers since she was younger. “I would think to myself, ‘I wonder how many 25 cents I could save up to save all the kids in Africa.’ And I would say to myself, ‘When I grow up and I get rich, I’m gonna save kids all over the world.’ I just didn’t know I would be in a position to do that by the time I was a teenager,” she shared.
The ‘Diamonds’ singer said how it is possible to make change and inspire the world without being ‘college-educated’ as the crowd laughs off. Rihanna did not graduate high school but would consider taking higher education.
For the occasion, RiRi showed off her nice brown locks in a ponytail. The pop sensation wore all grey from top to bottom with grey boots. She also wore a pearl necklace and had her Dior bag giving it a nice simple look.
Other recipients in history of the award include actor James Earl Jones, tennis player Arthur Ashe, and activist Malala Yousafzai.
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