Famous First-Generation College Students

It's All About The Attitude

“You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.”

Jimmy Carter - 39th President of the United States of America

One more group of rappers with degrees....for emphasis

Atlanta rapper Killer Mike graduated from the prestigious Morehouse College

Diddy went to Howard University

Lil' Jon went to "The" Ohio State University. He did not major in Crunk.

J. Cole earned his degree in Mass Communications at St. John's University.

“We’ve come a long way in our thinking, but also in our moral decay. I can’t imagine Dr. King watching “Real Housewives” or “Jersey Shore”

Samuel Leroy Jackson was raised by a single mother who was a factory worker. Jackson was a major participant in the Civil Rights Movement. Since then, he has starred in over 100 films and has overcome an alcohol addiction. Jackson has won numerous awards and is the highest grossing actor of all-time.

“I was raised in a Bronx public housing project, but studied at two of the nation’s finest universities. I did work as an assistant district attorney, prosecuting violent crimes that devastate our communities”

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”

Samuel L. Jackson

Morehouse College - Class of 1972

Barack Obama: 44th President of the United States

Sonia Sotomayor - Assistant Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Did you know: Common graduated from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (better known as FAMU) with a Bachelor's in Business Administration. Common has released 9 albums, and has been nominated for 8 Grammy's, winning two.

Never looking back or too far in front of me.

The present is a gift, and I just wanna BE.

"Can I just tell you, I think it's the most beautiful thing about young people today, it gives me so much hope for the future, that they don't really recognize race the way my generation does.” - Actress Viola Davis

Did you know:2 Chainz has a degree in Psychology from Alabama A&M?

More Rap Scholars:

Ruth Simmons

Ruth Simmons was the 18th President of Brown University and the first African American President of an Ivy League Institution (2001 - 2011).

• She was a first generation college student, the last of twelve children born to a sharecropper from Grapeland, TX.
• First African American woman to head a major college or University when she was selected as President of Smith College (1995-2001)
• Instrumental in the internationalization of Brown University.
• Awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for her Humanitarian efforts

Dr. Ben Carson

• Rap Legend Bun B taught classes on Hip-Hop at Rice University
• Plies has a degree in Nursing from Univ. of Central Florida
• Kanye West once attended Chicago State Univ. - he of course, dropped out
• Ludacris received a Business Degree from Georgia State

• American Neurosurgeon
• Completed first successful separation of conjoined twins in 1987.
• Former director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins University
• Born in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Carson was a first generation college student who graduated from Yale

Oprah Gail Winfrey

Did You Know?

Media Proprietor, Actress, Producer, Talk-Show Host, Philanthropist, everything

Rapper Lil Wayne took Psychology courses at The University of Houston?

• Born in Kosciusko, MS to a teenage single mother
• After stealing money from her mother, she was sent to live with a family friend in Nashville, who was strict, but loving, and made her focus on her education
• Earned a radio job in High School and a local evening news job at 19 (in Tennessee)
• Helped boost a Chicago talk show into 1st place, launching her own production company and becoming nationally syndicated.
• She's a Billionaire, with a capital "B"
• Has interviewed the likes of Michael Jackson, and Barack Obama, just to name a few
• Owns her own Magazine, television network, and much, much more
• You guessed it: first generation college student

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down”

or that Rapper Rick Ross graduated

from the South Florida Corrections

Officer Academy