From The A, For The A: Young Thug Gives Back To…
Young Thug made the first week back at college really feel more like a celebration for college students at Georgia’s Skyview High School, and we’ve acquired all the deets.
Source: Courtesy of Sky View High School / Courtesy of Sky View High School
The Grammy-winning Atlanta rapper returned to the College Park constitution college for its Back-to-School Bash, where college students spent the day eating, taking part in video games, successful prizes, and making ready for a Q&A with the hometown star.
For Skyview scholar Josiah, seeing Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, was significantly significant because of their shared roots.
“I just want to tell him, I grew up in the same place where you come from,” Josiah said forward of the Q&A.
The Bash included:
Food vehicles, ice cream and slushies
Bouncy homes and gaming vehicles
Board video games and raffle tickets
Gift playing cards and Beats headphones as prizes
A scholar Q&A with Young Thug
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
About 10 to 15 college students had been chosen to ask Williams questions ranging from music industry steering to personal advice about navigating life as a teenager in the world.
But between the video games and giveaways, Williams said he wished college students to stroll away understanding one thing a lot larger: they haven’t been forgotten.
Young Thug Wants Students To See What’s Possible
Williams told Atlanta media during a pre-event press convention that Skyview feels personal because he grew up minutes away and sees himself in many of the younger people the college serves.
“Got kids out there that kind of look, you know, look alike—look like me when I was young,” Williams said. “So you get to show them like it’s possible for them.”
Williams said artists with affect have a accountability to acknowledge how intently younger people are paying consideration to them.
“We sort of like virtually they mother and father to a sure extent,” he said. “They listen to what we say. They listen to what we do. When you get that type of power, you gotta be involved,” Williams said. “Gotta inform them the correct factor.
That consists of encouraging college students to assume past turning into the next rapper.
When BOSSIP’s very own Lauryn Bass requested Williams to identify a music profession younger people ought to know about outdoors of performing, he immediately pointed to engineering before mentioning management, expertise discovery and his own beginnings in fashion.
Source: Courtesy of Sky View High School / Courtesy of Sky View High School
“Music can kind of be like a stepping stone,” Williams said. “I feel like everything is a stepping stone.”
His advice was not to place an total future into one pursuit.
“Don’t dedicate your whole life into just one thing, because it probably won’t work the whole for your whole life,” Williams said.
Inside Skyview’s Mission To Give Students Another Path
Williams’ message matches into a bigger mission already underway at Skyview, where directors say the college serves younger people who could need more flexibility or help than a conventional high college setting offers.
Source: Courtesy of Sky View High School / Courtesy of Sky View High School
Vice Chairman Martin Hill described Skyview as a “second chance school” and burdened that college students could also be balancing schooling with jobs, household tasks or other circumstances.
“It’s not that anything is bad or anything is wrong with the students that we have,” Hill said. “It’s just sometimes you need that second chance.”
Hill said Skyview’s most current graduating class included more than 100 college students, in contrast with roughly 25 when he joined the board eight or 9 years in the past.
That help extends past incomes a diploma.
Dr. Shakeer Abdullah, Skyview’s dean of college students and profession coach, said the college prepares college students for a number of post-graduation pathways, including:
SAT and ACT preparation
ASVAB preparation for college students in the navy
College software and essay help
College, profession and navy gala’s
Connections to group schools, technical schools and four-year establishments
Career readiness and employment help
“Students want to be ready for whatever’s next,” Abdullah said.
Principal Shelley Leger said mentorship has also grow to be an important half of Skyview’s method, with current packages for both younger males and girls.
“I’ve seen where mentorship programs have shaped our school, from positive changes in students’ behavior, consistency and interactions with teachers and peers,” Leger said.
Skyview Assistant Principal Tyrell Walker echoed that emphasis on relationships. He says workers members work to guarantee “every student is caught by somebody” inside the building.
Walker says the aim is to remind college students that troublesome selections or circumstances don’t get rid of their choices.
“You don’t have to just be in the streets in order to make a way,” Walker said. “There’s other opportunities than the one that’s presented to you.”
Hill said Williams’ continued involvement helps reinforce that message. According to Hill, the rapper donated $10,000 last yr, helped present roughly 40 to 50 college students with an alternative to attend his benefit live performance and has continued supporting the college, with further Thanksgiving actions anticipated.
Young Thug Says Mentorship Has To Be Bigger Than Having Fun
Williams’ next step with Skyview will embrace mentoring college students throughout the college yr, but he said he doesn’t need the expertise to merely revolve around outings.
Source: Courtesy of Sky View High School / Courtesy of Sky View High School
“Having fun is cool, but learning is much better,” Williams said.
He plans to expose college students to new experiences while also instructing them to finally pour into others.
“I want these kids to be like ‘we’re gonna go to another school and give our stuff away.’ Just help somebody else,” he said. “I give away gifts instead of receiving them.”
Still, on the day of the Bash, Williams wished college students to take pleasure in being college students.
“You don’t gotta try to be overgrown or try to be an adult as a kid,” he said. “It’s okay to have fun.”
Most importantly, he wished them to acknowledge why he and so many others selected to show up.
“I want them to know that they’re not forgotten,” Williams said. “We could be anywhere, doing anything we want. But we are here with you.”
How The Community Can Support Skyview
Skyview is inviting the remaining of the group to show up, too. Abdullah says there are a number of methods Atlanta residents, companies, and group leaders can pour into its college students:
Source: Lauryn Bass / @itslaurynbass
Hire Skyview graduates for part-time and full-time alternatives.
Donate skilled clothes college students can put on to job interviews.
Support the college’s food and clothes pantries with needed assets.
Connect college students with profession alternatives and professionals who can expose them to different industries.
“The call to action is come and hire our graduates,” Abdullah said. “If folks don’t know that we need it, then they won’t think of us when they’re donating.”
Those in supporting the tuition-free constitution college, studying more about enrollment or connecting with its packages can go to SkyviewHighSchool.com.
What’s Next For Skyview Students?
The Back-to-School Bash is only the start. Students can look ahead to Williams’ mentorship throughout the college yr, further help and actions around Thanksgiving, and continued faculty, profession and navy programming through Skyview.
Walker also hopes the college can create a comparable mentorship alternative particularly for its younger girls by bringing a girl in leisure to campus.
“I would love for an upcoming rapper or female rapper to come through,” Walker said. “I would love to know a perspective of female rappers in how they got to where they are and how they deal with some of the adversity that they deal with.”
For Skyview’s college students, the Bash could have been the celebration that began the yr, but the larger investment is in all the pieces that comes after it.
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Courtesy of Sky View High School
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
Lauryn Bass
The post From The A, For The A: Young Thug Gives Back To Skyview High With Mentorship & Blazing Back-To-School Bash appeared first on GWN.
