Today, Stormzy announced that he will be helping fund two black British students to go to the University of Cambridge as part of the 'Stormzy Scholarship'.
On the day many A-Level students across the country wake up to find out their results, the chart-topping MC dropped into his former school—Harris Academy in Crystal Palace—and shared details of the initiative and his motivations behind it.
"It's so important for black students, especially, to be aware that it can 100% be an option to attend a university of this calibre," he revealed. "If you're academically brilliant, don't think because you come from a certain community that studying at one of the highest education institutions in the world isn't possible."
The Stormzy Scholarship will pay for tuition fees and also help with a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate course. Stormzy’s scholarship will fund two students starting this year, and two more in 2019. Earlier this year, a report from The Financial Times revealed that one in five colleges admitted fewer than 10 black students over a five-year period.
Having unveiled plans for #Merky Books just over a month ago—a platform for young writing talent to become published authors—today marks yet another example of Stormzy using not only his voice, but also his growing influence and capital to offer up life-changing opportunities to the under-represented.
This is exactly what a culture shift is supposed to look like.
