Oh, to be a millionaire! Oh, to be the friend of a millionaire… or at least the recipient of a generous gift from a millionaire. The millionaire I am referring to is actress Jada Pinkett Smith and the recipient of her generosity is her high school alma mater, the Baltimore School for the Arts. Smith recently donated $1 million to the school and asked that administrators use the money to build a new theater and dedicate it to classmate Tupac Shakur, who was shot and killed in 1996.
“It means a lot when you’re a teacher and your most famous alumnus comes back to give a donation,” said the head of the school’s theater department and Pinkett Smith’s former theater teacher. “It really says a lot to the community that the school matters in people’s lives.”
The money is not coming directly from Pinkett Smith; it was given to the school by the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, based in Baltimore. School officials told local reporters that the money would be used for renovation and expansion projects. In addition, the school said it would name its new theater for Pinkett Smith. Yes, the actress did request that the theater be named for Shakur because of the friendship they developed at the school (the rapper died after a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas), but the school had other ideas.
Currently, the school is undergoing a $30 million expansion program. It is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2007. When it is complete the school will increase its enrollment from 316 to 375 students. Pinkett Smith said one of the reasons she donated such a large amount of money to the school is because of the advances the school had made since she graduated impressed her.
Pinkett Smith has done pretty well for herself since her graduation. She appeared in several hit TV shows and starred in movies such as “Ali,” and “Collateral,” and she was the voice of the hippo Gloria in the 2005 animated film “Madagascar.” In addition, she went on to marry actor Will Smith, who stars in the new movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” with their 8-year-old son, Jaden.
The million-dollar donation is not the first contribution Pinkett Smith has made to the school. She previously donated $112,500 to the school a few years ago.
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