Once upon a time, Lizzo was just a kid in college with a flute and a dream. And now that she’s a 35-year-old global superstar, the musician is giving back to young Black students at her alma mater who are following in her footsteps, and she’s doing it by offering a brand new scholarship in honor of Juneteenth.
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“LIZZOS JUNETEENTH GIVEBACK IS PROUD TO PRESENT 50,000$ TO THE ‘SASHA BE FLOOTING SCHOLARSHIP’ AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON,” the Grammy winner captioned a video announcing the scholarship. “Thank you to @universityofhouston for your partnership and support.”
In the video, Lizzo shared that the partnership with the university is “very close to my heart, near and dear to home and a milestone for me,” and noted that the winner of the scholarship would be announced “very, very soon.”
“It is for any young Black student from Houston, Texas who has applied to go to University of Houston to study at the Moores School of Music,” she continued. “That was me just a couple years ago, a young Black flute player who just needed a scholarship and someone to believe in them. Now I get to pay it forward.”
An hour prior to the announcement, Lizzo shared a throwback photo of her younger self playing flute in the University of Houston band with a temporary tattoo of the school’s red and white cougar mascot stamped on her cheek. “Meet Baby Lizzo on scholarship at the University of Houston hoping she’ll earn a music performance degree in flute….,” she wrote in her caption. “Little did she know she’d change the conversation on flutes in pop culture forever.”
The scholarship marks the fourth donation made in Lizzo’s series of Juneteenth givebacks, which has also seen her donate $50,000 to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, which serves the Black transgender community; Black Girls Smile, which offers mental health services to young Black women; and the Sphinx Organization, a social justice program offering musical opportunities to Black and LatinX people.
See Lizzo’s announcement below:
