“So let me be clear…every member of the 2019 graduating class is guaranteed an internship waiting for them- you-next summer,” 13-time Grammy award winner Pharrell Williams, recently told all 114 graduating students at Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy. The singer was at the commencement speaker at the graduation ceremony.
For some time now, Williams has been working with the school’s administration to create internship opportunities so as to aid students get connections in fields they desire to be a part of. The initiative between the school and the Grammy winner is also a targeted goal of ending generational poverty, whiles giving them the experience they need.
“In order for us to get our community, these children, and these families out of poverty, we want to make sure that they are connected to a livable wage, and we know that for so many of our young people, the way that they’re going to be able to do that is with that college degree in their hands, but also with some experience from very good internships that they will be able to do while they’re in college,” said Anne Williams-Isom, CEO of Promise Academy.
The internship package will be rewarded them after their first year in college.
Giving deserved students opportunities in the corporate world has being a focal agenda for Pharrell aside his buzzing music career. In past years, the singer has partnered with the Verizon Foundation to increase technology access, specifically music, in underprivileged schools. In 2008, Williams founded the ‘From One Hand to Another’ foundation which sponsors free educational summer camps for at-risk and low-income middle schools and high schools that focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, math and motivation (S.T.E.A.M.M).
