“There’s no changing the fact that I’m me, and they’re...well...they’re them” Rihanna so triumphantly tweets following yet another surge of deplorable trying to dim her shine. Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty (but also known as Rihanna, RiRi, Queen Rih, etc.) on February 20th of 1988, has become a global icon, all before the age of 30. I chose Rihanna because she has been such a huge influence in my life. Everything she says and does inspire me to be a better person. Rihanna inspires people through her story, the way that she (quite literally) went from nothing to something, her involvement with philanthropy, and how she deals with the opposition. As with all great stories, Rihanna’s starts at the beginning; her childhood.

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20th of 1988 in St. Michael, Barbados, and is the eldest of three children to Monica and Ronald Fenty. Her father’s addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol had a severe impact on Rihanna’s childhood. One of these is when her parents divorced when she was 14. She then lived with her father, with whom she had to sell clothes with in order to survive.

Additionally, RiRi also suffered from excruciating headaches throughout her childhood, which she hid from her friends and schoolmates so that she would avoid being bullied. As a teenager, Rihanna turned to singing as a release from the troubles she faced at home and school. She later formed an all-girl musical group with two of her classmates, and when they were 15 years old, they landed an audition with music producer Evan Rogers, who was visiting the island with his Barbadian wife. Rogers was awed by the precociously beautiful and phenomenally talented Rihanna, much to the unfortunate detriment of her two friends.

“The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist,” (Billboard). She eventually moved to Connecticut to live with Rogers and his wife while cutting a four-song demo. “‘When I left Barbados, I didn’t look back,’ Rihanna adds. ‘I wanted to do what I had to do, even if it meant moving to America.’” (Billboard). Later, Rihanna scored an audition with several big recording labels, and immediately following the auditions, Jay-Z knew she had to get signed.

Twelve years later, “[Rihanna] has broken more records than any other artist, has sold the most digital sales over any other artist and is ranked as the 13th Greatest Artist of All Time” (Billboard). It's because of the hardships that she had faced during her childhood, the odds of success weren’t exactly calling out her name. She was merely a black girl living on one of the islands in the Caribbean. Nobody anticipated for her to break records set by legends like The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Mariah Carey.

Nobody anticipated for her to then break her own records, several times over. Nobody thought that the little island girl would become a global ambassador for global peace and education. But by chance and talent and pure grit, Rihanna beat all of the odds. Only 49% of Hispanics that are admitted into college actually attend. And only 45.8% of those end up graduating from a college or university with a degree.

And 100% of those that didn’t, DIED. Seeing my biggest idol beat even harsher odds has motivated me to not only be a part of that 45.8%, but to increase that statistic. I want to be a part of the change that allows every Hispanic student to not only be able to get into college, but finish it with a degree. I know that I can beat this record, because Rihanna has broken so many. However, she does more than just break records and beat odds. She works tirelessly every day to ascertain that everybody has the same basic rights as a human being. In 2012, Rihanna founded the nonprofit Clara Lionel Foundation.

Named after her grandparents Clara (who, that year, lost her battle with cancer) and Lionel Braithwaite, this nonprofit is an organization whose mission is to support and fund groundbreaking and effective education, health and emergency response programs around the world. With the voices of Rihanna and her fans, CLF also engages in global advocacy with the goal of improving the quality of life for young people everywhere. In 2014, Rihanna joined forces with the cosmetic company MAC, who named her the face of their Viva Glam Campaign. “All proceeds from the Viva Glam Rihanna II Lipstick/Lip Gloss Campaign will benefit women and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS” (Rihanna Now). “Through the Clara Lionel Foundation, she purchased radiotherapy equipment for the oncology unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados in 2012.

In 2016, she launched a global scholarship program through the foundation which helps residents of Barbados, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Guyana, Jamaica and the United States go to college.” (Mettler, So, I Made It To Harvard). Earlier this year, Rihanna received Harvard’s 2017 Humanitarian of the Year Award. She is the first person of color since Martin Luther King Jr to receive this award. And is the first artist, male or female, to receive this award. “The university says it chose Rihanna for her involvement in a number of charitable causes” (Bright Like A Diamond). She received this award not because of her unprecedented success in the music industry, but for the work that she does for humanity as a whole. Her acceptance speech shed more light onto why she does philanthropic work.

“At 17 I started my career here in America, and by the age of 18, I started my first charity organization. I went on to team up with other organizations in the following years and met, helped, and even lost some of the most beautiful souls, from six-year-old Jasmina Anema who passed away in 2010 from leukemia, her story inspired thousands to volunteer as donors through DKMS. Fast forward to 2012 and then my grandmother, the late Clara Brathwaite, she lost her battle with cancer, which is the very reason and the driving force behind the Clara Lionel Foundation. We're all human. And we all just want a chance: a chance at life, a chance in education, a chance at a future, really.

And at CLF, our mission is to impact as many lives as possible, but it starts with just one. Just one. As I stare out into this beautiful room, I see optimism, I see hope, I see the future. I know that each and every one of you has the opportunity to help someone else. All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return.

To me, that is a humanitarian...but it starts with your neighbor, the person right next to you, the person sitting next to you in class, the kid down the block in your neighborhood, you just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can. And today I want to challenge each of you to make a commitment to help one person: one organization, one situation that touches your heart. My grandmother always used to say, ‘If you've got a dollar, there's plenty to share’. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. It was my honor.” (Rihanna).