Rihanna received the honor of Harvard’s Humanitarian of the Year Award earlier today at the university campus. Her feats include creating a scholarship program for U.S. and Caribbean students and building a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment clinic in her home country Barbados.
The singer thanked the university for the honor and joked about “making it into Harvard.” She talked about wondering in her childhood how much she could save if she saved quarters to help all the kids in Africa, then proceeded to encourage those attending the ceremony to join her.
“All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return. To me, that is a humanitarian. What that little girl watching those commercials didn’t know is that you don’t have to be rich to be a humanitarian, you don’t have to be rich to help somebody. You don’t have to be famous, you don’t even have to be college educated. But it starts with your neighbor… you just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can,” she stated according to Billboard.
Previous winners include Malala Yousafzai, James Earl Jones, and Ban-Ki Moon.
Rihanna: Artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist
In other news, Rihanna may have gotten herself in a legal mess, mainly because of her new perfume line “Kiss by Rihanna.” Her advertising manager has been promoting the hashtag #kiss to promote the product on social media. This caused some trouble when Kiss Nail Products accused the singer of stealing their trademark, and according to The New York Post, they are seeking damages from Roraj Trade LLC, Rihanna’s manufacturing line.
On the Grammys, Rihanna saw herself in an Armani Privé ballroom skirt, to then appear bursting with fashion in a pink babydoll dress, even if she did not win any of the awards she was nominated for. At just 29 years of age, the singer is enjoying a very successful time in her career. She has earned 8 Grammy Awards, 8 People’s Choice Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, and 12 American Music Awards.
With over 200 million records sold worldwide, Rihanna became one of the best-selling music artists of all time, breaking a Guinness World Record for digital single sales, getting to 58 million. She has even surpassed 100 million Gold and Platinum song certifications, being the first and only artist to surpass the Recording Industry Association of America’s 100 million cumulative singles award threshold.
Regarding her humanitarian work, Rihanna is the creator of the Believe Foundation, a startup to help terminally ill children. In 2007 she was named a Cartier Love Charity Bracelet Ambassador and has also designed clothing for the H&M Fashion Against AIDS line.
With great success, entrepreneurs feel like they should give back to whoever they can in any way they can. When asked about success, Bill Gates quoted Warren Buffett’s definition by saying that success is when people who surround you are happy and love you and that it also “feels nice” to do something good for others, or raising kids, or feel like you’ve made a difference
Source: ABC