The Story of "Roxanne's Revenge""Twenty-five years after the first queen of hip-hop was stiffed on her royalty checks, Dr. Roxanne Shante boasts an Ivy League Ph.D. - financed by a forgotten clause in her first record deal".
This story is the kind of thing I live for and has been on my mind ever since I read about it last week. She came from a poor place - apparently the projects - and was able to get herself through not just high school or college, but by finishing her P.H.D. from Cornell, an Ivy League school. Now she helps educate young musicians on the business aspects of their career and does social work for kids in her old community as well as the Hip Hop Association.
I relate to this story because I did HORRIBLE in high school, barely finished, and basically never went...or even tried in the slightest. My home life in this small Wisconsin town was not good, and basically I didn't feel that I had a home to go to and thus had absolutely no foundation to build from. Getting into an Ivy League college, Columbia University in NYC, at 24 was the hardest thing I ever did and graduating with that B.A. even harder....but I did it. It took me 5 years just to figure out how to get scholarships and loans...how to even GO to college. My grades weren't the best and I damn well tried my hardest..but I just lacked the right background so everything took me so much longer to write, research etc. Also the teachers KNOW you don't fit in and will give you a B+ instead of an A- EVERY TIME...Its not fair, but well...they can see you are not like the others and maybe its subconscious behavior of theirs, I don't know, but I forgive them now. So Dr. Roxanne Shante's story is the type I live for - proof that if you keep going, you can even get a Masters... AND a Doctorate regardless of your upbringing.
Anyway this is why I am a teacher today.
For the full story from the Daily News, click here: READ MORE
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