Pharrell Williams’s non-profit organization is setting up private schools for low-income students. Several schools will be based in his home state of Virginia.
The musician has a non-profit organization called YELLOW. Through this organization, Williams will open multiple schools. The first one will be in the town of Norfolk.
Williams shared a statement about the project. Williams said that winners will be chosen by lottery and is open to third, fourth, and fifth graders as “The Virginia Pilot” reports. He said in a press release, “If the system is fixed and unfair, then it needs to be broken.”
Pharrell added, “We don’t want lockstep learning where so many kids fall behind; we want bespoke learning designed for each child, where the things that make a child different are the same things that will make a child rise and take flight”.
YELLOW announced the venture in an Instagram post. They wrote: “Change starts at home and scales to the world. From the imagination of Virginia-native Pharrell Williams, in consultation with education futurists and NASA scientists, we are excited to launch YELLOWHAB — an immersive educational environment that sparks imagination in a story-filled space where children transcend every day on a journey for deeper learning.”
They also added, “YELLOW admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate based on race, color, national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.”