NNPA Newswire/BlackPressUSA
By Stacy M. Brown
Popular music’s most powerful couple continue to make power moves.
And, even when their good deeds are a year old, the significance never fades.
Twitter and other social media users are again gushing over the impact Beyoncé and her husband Jay Z’s commitment to students in select high schools and historically Black colleges and universities.
Two years ago, they announced a new scholarship program that will award 10 scholarships worth $100,000 each to “exceptional” high school seniors who demonstrate financial needs.
The duo said the award will serve as a dedicated university-based fund for each selected student throughout the duration of the student’s enrollment.
In 2021, Beyoncé’s “BeyGOOD Initiative” and Jay Z’s “The Shawn Carter Foundation,” partnered with Tiffany & Co. to donate $2 million to HBCUs.
As a new school semester dawns, fans and others are anticipating another major power move by the couple.
Meanwhile, the “About Love” Scholarship is distributed among students who pursue the arts and creative fields at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania; Norfolk State University in Virginia; Bennett College in North Carolina; the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, and Central State University in Ohio.
The power couple have had a long history of helping students with The Shawn Carter Foundation spearheading college tours to historically Black colleges and universities and providing scholarships to college bound students throughout the country.
Through her BeyGOOD initiative, Beyoncé created the Formation Scholars Award, a merit program to help female students start or further their college education, and this year they announced the Homecoming Scholars Award, a second merit program, opened to qualified students, regardless of gender, to enter or continue their studies at one of eight HBCUs.
Jordan Davis decided to apply for the BeyGood scholarship but said doubted he would receive the award.
About a month later though, the Plano, Texas, native learned he was one of the eight finalists who had won the inaugural scholarship sponsored by Beyoncé and Google.
“I was so ecstatic,” Davis told the Houston Chronicle. “It was a dream come true. It almost felt like Beyoncé had chosen me.”
Homecoming Scholars was inspired by Beyoncé’s performance at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Beyoncé, the first Black woman in the festival’s 19-year history to be its headline performer, referenced HBCUs throughout her performance that incorporated a 100-piece all-Black marching band and song selection.
“The show, with its homage to excellence in education, was a celebration of the homecoming weekend experience, the highest display of college pride,” according to a news release.
“The energy-filled production put the spotlight on art and culture, mixing the ancient and the modern, which resonated masterfully through the marching band, performance art, choir, and dance. It was the impetus to mark her second scholarship program.”
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