Actively investing in our youth via education is becoming the status quo when it comes to celebrities giving back. The genius behind this sort of giving is that it will return the investment for generations to come.
In an interview with Tech Crunch, singer/music executive Ne-Yo talked about his new investment in the Holberton School in San Francisco. He, along with other investors, donated $2.3 million and joined the school’s board of trustees to attract underrepresented students to apply.
“This is not, ‘oh, let me attach my name to something’,” Ne-Yo told Tech Crunch. “This is something that I’m genuinely passionate about.”
The innovative education center that teaches coding doesn’t require tuition but instead asks graduates who get jobs, to give 17 percent of their salary to the school for the first three years of employment. Currently, the school is 40 percent female and 53 percent people of color, but the hope is to make it more diverse.
“Everybody knows that tech and all these things are the wave of the future,” the 37-year-old said. “I just love the fact of what they’re doing with the school — that they’re making it easier for underrepresented people in the world of tech. They’re giving them a platform and access to this knowledge that they probably wouldn’t get otherwise.”
In 2012 Ne-Yo became the Senior Vice President of A&R of Motown where he writes and produces music, in addition to nurturing new talent. His last album, Non-Fiction came out in 2015.
“I’m definitely going to be hands on,” he said in regards to working with Holberton. “I don’t know if i’m going to do every day because there’s this little music career thing that I’ve got going on. So there’s that, but i’m definitely going to be hands on.”