Rihanna named Harvard University’s Humanitarian of the Year

Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NARASRihanna is Harvard-bound — not to study, but to pick up the University’s Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at a ceremony next Tuesday.

S. Allen Counter, the Harvard Foundation’s director, tells the Harvard Gazette, “Rihanna has charitably built a state-of-the-art center for oncology and nuclear medicine to diagnose and treat breast cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados.”

Counter also notes of the singer, “She has also created the Clara and Lionel Foundation Scholarship Program [named for her grandmother and grandfather] for students attending college in the U.S. from Caribbean countries, and supports the Global Partnership for Education and Global Citizen Project, a multiyear campaign that will provide children with access to education in over 60 developing countries, giving priority to girls and those affected by lack of access to education in the world today.”

The Harvard Foundation recognizes prominent public-spirited leaders each year in honor of the late Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes. Past honorees include actor James Earl Jones and the late tennis star and activist, Arthur Ashe.

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