50 Cent, Texas’s newest resident, has put his money where his mouth is and helped some students get money of their own.
According to ABC 13, the rapper-turned-actor — whose given name is Curtis Jackson — donated $300,000 to the Houston Independent School District, which is to be used for the G-Star Program at the county’s historically underperforming schools. In turn the district, matched the actor’s donation for a total of $600,000.
The underperforming schools in question — Wheatley, Worthing and Kashmere high schools — will have the G-Star Program installed to provide paid internships and other business opportunities to the students there.
There will even be a chance to meet, and work with, 50 Cent himself. That’s thanks to the G-Unity Lab, which the rapper set up to work with a dedicated group of students who are interested in getting mentorship from the “Power” creator himself.
The idea is to help create the next generation of minority-owned small businesses and create more wealthy Black entrepreneurs — and to provide an opportunity where there is none.
Sylvester Turner, the newest mayor of Houston, said that the money donated by the “I Get Money” rapper will help these underprivileged students, many of whom have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A quality of education is one of the best tools we can give students to succeed in the classroom and in their future professional career,” said Turner. “We want to create additional opportunities for young people who are going to be the scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers of the future.”
In his usual bombastic way, 50 Cent — who made headlines in the area during Christmastime, when he donated thousands of dollars in toys which were then distributed at the Toyota Center — said that this donation was just the first of many.
“It’s only three schools now, but I got more coming — trust me,” he said. “These programs will really get people excited to learn again after everything that’s been going on.”
