10 Celebrities Who Do the Most for Education

In addition to adoring fans, huge paychecks, and an incredibly fun lifestyle, celebrities enjoy one huge perk that some seem to really enjoy taking advantage of: the opportunity to support worthy causes. We’ve all seen celebrities jumping on to promote environmental causes, fight for sick children, and even work with the UN, but education is a soft spot for many celebrities as well. We’ve found 10 celebrities who are really making a difference for students worldwide, giving their time, effort, and often, considerable amounts of money.

1. Mark Zuckerberg

   Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to give most of his vast fortune away, and the first big step he made was in giving $100 million to Newark Public Schools. Newark’s schools have been in trouble for some time, as the state seized power in 1995 when the school system was officially declared a failure. Although Zuckerberg does not have any particular connection to Newark, he did recognize the incredible need and has put his money to work for the schools, creating the Foundation for Newark’s Future, a “lean and scrappy” organization that is now tasked with using Zuckerberg’s incredible gift to create real change. The foundation has already given away $7 million in about 20 grants, and has made great progress, $48 million worth of progress, toward a $100 million match promised by Newark’s mayor. These grants have gone to start several high schools, award innovative teachers, expand Teach for America, and even create a parent call center.

2. Bill and Melinda Gates

   Another pair of big tech education supporters, Bill and Melinda Gates are behind The Giving Pledge, a campaign encouraging some of the world’s wealthiest people to donate most of their money to charity, the same campaign that Zuckerberg made his philanthropic pledge to. But even before creating the pledge, the Gateses, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have given billions to education. The foundation has donated more than $250 million in grants for small schools, $122 million for the DC Achievers Scholarship, $210 million for Gates Cambridge Scholarships, $84.6 million for the Texas High School Project, $60 million for Strong American Schools, and a whopping $1.5 billion through Gates Millennium Scholars for scholarships to help high-achieving minority students. These are just some of the largest domestic gifts the foundation has made; there are several other projects including funds for new schools, a teaching channel, new teaching centers at Cornell and Carnegie Mellon, and more. The foundation is undoubtedly making an incredible impact on education through its generous gifts.

3. Oprah Winfrey

   Oprah Winfrey is well known for her philanthropic work, and education is an especially important part of her focus on charity. Winfrey has taken on many educational projects small and large, from the $40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa to Oprah’s Angel Network, which allowed her viewers to contribute more than $80 million to charitable projects, raising enough to create scholarships and establish 60 schools in 13 countries, as well as share six $1 million grants for U.S. charter schools.

4. Shakira

   Shakira’s hips are a powerful force in music, but it turns out the singer is a powerful force in education as well. The singer has long believed that education can be a way for a child to fulfill their potential and escape poverty, but recognizes that often, poor children just don’t have the opportunity to receive a good education. She founded the Barefoot Foundation in 1995, which feeds and educates approximately 6,000 children in her home country of Colombia as well as in South Africa and Haiti. More recently, she has served as a member of several important foundations and councils for education, including a position as Goodwill Ambassador for the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, promoting early childhood care and education worldwide. She also donated $400,000 to rebuild schools in Haiti after the 2010 earthquakes. All of Shakira’s incredible work in education has led to an even bigger opportunity in educational support: she was recently appointed to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

5. Justin Timberlake

   Music has clearly enriched Justin Timberlake’s life, and the singer has set out to share the love of music by supporting music education in any way possible. In 2002, Timberlake petitioned Congress to support music education, pushing to make quality music education available to all American school children. This effort was done through the Justin Timberlake Foundation, an organization with a mission to promote music education as an essential part of a child’s development. Through this foundation, Timberlake has supported the growth of music education throughout the U.S., including his hometown of Memphis, where he gave $200,000 to music education facilities.

6. Denzel Washington

   Denzel Washington credits his Fordham theater professor, Bob Stone, with giving him inspiration for his career, and the famous actor has given right back, donating $2.25 million to the school for a Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre, as well as a $250,000 theater scholarship. Phylicia Rashad, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show has joined Fordham as the first Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre. He is also reported to have donated $1 million to Wiley College, offering the gift to re-establish the debate team. The 1930 Wiley debate team was the subject of Washington’s film, The Great Debaters. Washington has also worked closely with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America on a campaign to stop the high school dropout crisis, serving as a national spokesperson for the organization since 1992.

7. Matt Damon

   Matt Damon is better known for his work with Water.org and Not on Our Watch, but with a teacher for a mom, Damon has certainly not neglected to give education the help it needs. The actor is quite outspoken about educational support, joining in the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC, as the keynote speaker to rally for education policy reform in the U.S., and speaking out on several occasions to discuss the state of education. Damon has also narrated the 2011 documentary film American Teacher, which highlights the struggles teachers experience every day.

8. Kobe Bryant

   Basketball star Kobe Bryant has been known to donate his time and money into charities that help less fortunate children, especially in educational pursuits. Through the Kobe Bryant Family Foundation, he’s taken on several projects to support education worldwide. Bryant set up the Kobe Bryant China Fund, which raises money for education and other programs for children from China and the United States, with its first donation going to the children of the Sichuan Province recently hit by a devastating earthquake. He has also been the National Ambassador for After School All-Stars since 2007, a program that engages students after school with academic support and enrichment opportunities. Through After School All-Stars, he visits students to discuss the importance of education and even held a basketball clinic for kids in Miami. These are just some of the examples of Bryant’s extensive charity work for kids and education: he also donated to his former high school, supports the southern California Boys & Girls Clubs, and also sponsors the Kobe Basketball Academy.

9. Angelina Jolie

   Angelina Jolie is well known for her active role in so many charitable ventures, even serving as UN refugee agency’s Goodwill Ambassador, and education is no exception. Jolie’s educational work includes the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, founded in 2007 with economist Dr. Gene Sperling to fund education programs for children affected by disasters, most notably $1 million for children affected by the war in Iraq. Smaller gifts from the Jolie-Pitt family include $75,000 to build a school in Afghanistan, and primary school support in Cambodia through the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

10. Will Smith

    Will Smith’s mother worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith homeschools their children, so we suspect the actor has long had a soft spot for education, and he’s putting his values to work through charitable actions. Most recently, the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation donated nearly $1 million to establish the New Village Leadership Academy in California. This has been their most high profile contribution to education so far, but the Smiths have also made several smaller contributions to education worldwide, including $20,000 for the Hollywood Education and Literacy Program, 30 replacement computers for a West Philadelphia high school that had theirs stolen, and the Will and Jada Smith Summer Thinking Scholars Academy for kindergarten through sixth-grade students.

Taken From Online Colleges