In penning today’s post, I opted to take a
“Road Less Traveled” approach. When you read the post, you’ll understand. In
the unlikely event you do not, hit me up and I’ll clarify.
For some, the best thing about this post is
it’s really brief. You can thank me later. Without further ado, let’s do this!
Yesterday afternoon, the Harvard Foundation
bestowed the prestigious Peter J. Gomes Award to Ms. Robyn Fenty. The award,
popularly known as Harvard’s Humanitarian of the Year Award, is given annually
to recognize prominent public-spirited leaders in honor of the late Rev.
Professor Peter J. Gomes. The Award, introduced in 1984, comprises a long list
of luminary recipients, including:
·
Physician-statistician Hans
Rosling
·
Actor James Earl Jones
·
Nobel Peace Prize Committee
Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland
·
U.N. Secretaries General Ban
Ki-moon, Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, & Javier Perez de Cuellar
·
Gender rights advocate Malala
Yousafzai
·
Anti-child-labor spokesman
Kailash Satyarthi
·
Tennis player and activist
Arthur Ashe
·
Former Health and Human
Services Director Louis W. Sullivan
·
Farmworker rights advocate
Dolores Huerta
Without question, that is an august list. Ms.
Fenty’s work has earned her place among her stoutly credentialed
predecessors. According to S. Allen Counter, the Harvard Foundation’s Director,
Ms. Fenty, a native of Barbados, burnished her humanitarian bona fides by:
Charitably
building 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
Founding
in 2012, the nonprofit Clara Lionel Foundation Global Scholarship Program, named for her grandparents,
for students attending college in the U.S. from Caribbean countries, and
supports the Global Partnership for Education and Global Citizen Project, which
provides 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 presented the Award to Robyn in a ceremony yesterday at 4:00 p.m. at
Sanders Theater on the campus of Harvard University. Oh, by the way, did I
mention this world-famous Bajan has a middle name by which most of you are
likely to know her? For the legions who are not pop culture maven, Ms. Fenty is
better known by most of us as Rihanna. In addition to her robust humanitarian vita,
she is an international musical phenomenon, a singer, an actress, and a songwriter
who has sold more than 200 million records. The woman most of us know best as a
musical icon has just gone upscale; Harvard, no less. “Her Momma Named Her Robyn; I’mma Call Her Robyn, Humanitarian ofthe Year!”
I’m done; holla back!
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