Beyonce’ Gives Back Empowering Women
By: Hope Wilkos, Writer
She continues to reign as one of the top musical and fashion icons of all time. Her classic smile and angelic grace attract fans and admirers of all ages, races and religions. But, there is so much more behind Beyonce’s persona than meets the ordinary eye.
Beyonce’ is more than just a woman. She is a mother, a wife, a singer, a dancer, a forward thinker and a humanitarian filled with goodness waiting to be given to others desiring to follow their dreams. Recently, at the end of April 2017, as the musical artist celebrated her one-year anniversary of her sixth and one of her most successful albums yet and the winner of the coveted Peabody Award, the album is known as Lemonade, she wanted to do something significant and memorable and future generation affecting. These thoughts brought her to create “Formation Scholars” (named after her Formation World Tour), a program which will encourage and support young women who have no fear of thinking outside of the box and who possess a courageous spirit, creativity, consciousness, and embody confidence. For those who exemplify those traits, there will be four scholarships awarded to cover the tuition needed to attend one of the four schools in the 2017-2018 academic year. Those choices are Parsons School of Design in New York, Berklee College of Music in Boston, Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Spelman College in Atlanta. In order to even be considered as a candidate for the scholarship, the student must be pursuing a degree in creative arts, music literature or African-American studies.
Not only does this give students the incentive to reach for their dreams and aspirations to the highest degree, but, the actual schools are just as ecstatic to gain the opportunity to support such a magnificent cause and praise Beyonce’s efforts.
This is only one of many humanitarian causes that Beyonce’ has put her heart and soul into developing and pursuing. After one of the most destructive hurricanes in US history, Hurricane Katrina, both Beyonce’ and Kelly Rowland banded together to give hope to those victims who had lost everything. This prompted them to create the Survivor Foundation which provided transitional housing for victims in the Houston area. With her $250K contribution and the help of others, this foundation has been expanding ever since, assisting victims of other hurricanes as well. Beyonce’ also became the face of a limited-edition CFDA tee, “Fashion For Haiti” as part of the larger campaign led by George Clooney and Wyclef Jeans. The campaign was called “Hope For Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief. “ Astonishingly, this t-shirt has raised $1 million for that particular cause. Beyonce’ also became the 2012 World Humanitarian Day Campaign Ambassador and has been extremely involved in a number of campaigns encouraging female empowerment. That is truly her philanthropic passion.
As a testament to all the amazing acts of charity and philanthropy, Beyonce’ was awarded the honorable title of “Most Charitable Celebrity of the Year” in December of 2016. Girls across the globe look to her to be their role models. Men cherish her ease of expression and desire to make the lives of others more fruitful.
Beyonce’ continues to inspire and motivate girls and women to be empowered without looking back and that convincing concept is only the beginning of a very bright future, given the generosity of this amazing and talented artist.
