Now One Degree Hotter, Megan Thee Stallion’s Graduation Inspires Interest in Her HBCU

When you cement options to wrap up your undergraduate degree in a around the globe hit music, the pressure is on to satisfy your self-imposed deadline.
Rap celebrity Megan Thee Stallion—known as Megan Pete at her HBCU alma mater Texas Southern University—fulfilled the assure she designed in summertime chart topper “Thot Shit”: that in “2021, finna graduate college.” As followers celebrated her walk across the stage in December with the hashtag #MeganTheeGraduate, there are signals that the Houston native could be inspiring other individuals to do the similar.
2021 finna graduate school 🎓 Having my grad photos right now 🥺😍 pic.twitter.com/3F7ShLOH3f
— TINA SNOW (@theestallion) Oct 25, 2021
Like several undergrads, Megan Thee Stallion’s route to graduation was not a clean 1. The “Savage” rapper advised Rolling Stone that she started off her diploma at another Houston-location HBCU, Prairie Perspective A&M University, and took a smattering of neighborhood university courses ahead of determining to full her bachelor’s diploma in well being administration at Texas Southern.
Megan, who won the Very best New Artist Grammy in 2021, was so eager to graduate that she took 5 classes all through her remaining semester, she reveals in the job interview. Even her supervisors pitched in by reminding her of assignments. When her new music profession took off, Megan talked to university directors about solutions for being enrolled and shifted to on the net courses.
“I needed to get out of there,” the 26-year-old tells the journal. “I stored inquiring my Dean. I was like, ‘What do I have to do to just be completed?’ She was like, ‘Okay, Megan, you definitely likely to have to buckle down and these are the last courses that you have to consider.’”
That person supplying Megan some actual talk was Well being Administration Program Director Monica Rasmus. She suggests there’s been an uptick in curiosity in the program, each at the undergraduate and graduate degrees, and has heard of possible students mentioning Megan by identify.
Congrats #MeganTheeGraduate! Sign up for Megan & aid other college students graduate through Thee Megan Fund!https://t.co/lp9XTcX93J#TSUProud #TexasSouthern pic.twitter.com/opvcaHgHIm
— Texas Southern University (@TexasSouthern) December 11, 2021
“She motivated in two locations: One particular for returning to college to comprehensive what pupils had started off, and for an fascination in majoring in wellbeing administration,” Rasmus says. “It’s not simply Ms. Pete’s graduation. It’s her attendance and her matriculation by the application. I would assume her continued achievement in the enjoyment marketplace would be an impetus for learners to seek out out our software due to the fact it’s usually likely to be attached to her.”
Rasmus notes there could be an additional component at enjoy in the better contact volume to her business office, apart from Megan’s starpower.
“The pandemic put community wellbeing in the forefront of people’s minds,” Rasmus says.
On graduation working day Dec. 11, admirers tuned into the university’s livestream and reacted in authentic time to the ceremony. Twitter acquired in on the celebration by making a special #MeganTheeGraduate and #HottieGraduation hashtag icon. The hitmaker acquired shoutouts from celebs like fellow rapper Cardi B and education and learning officials together with U.S. Schooling Secretary Miguel Cardona.
🗣Calling all Hotties, the big day is listed here…
It is #HottieGraduation weekend for @theestallion, and we’re gonna convert up HTX design and style 🤘🏾 pic.twitter.com/aK6daVlxNz
— Twitter Music (@TwitterMusic) December 10, 2021
Over the summertime, Megan presented encouraging terms to fellow undergrads and followers on Twitter.
“My school working experience has been a roller coaster!” Megan wrote. “I started off at PV went to some community schools in among and I’m ending at TSU. Do not get discouraged! You can chase your goals and your education and learning at the same time 👏🏽”
Rashid Mosavin, dean of Texas Southern University’s pharmacy and wellness sciences higher education, says it is also soon for numbers to reveal what Megan’s true affect on enrollment could possibly be. But her donation of $25,000 in scholarships—part of her nationwide $1 million scholarship partnership with e-commerce model Trend Nova—has now assisted 3 students conquer what Mosavin says is the best barrier to graduating: access to monetary help.
“I feel the effects is substantial,” Mosavin says. “I hope she inspires not only college students in my faculty but in arts, dance, all of that.”

Several school learners will be ready to relate to Megan’s confession that motivation was a massive problem though finishing her diploma. But she stayed the program to honor her late mom and grandmother, who both equally died in 2019.
“Before they handed absent, they saw me going to higher education and they had been really challenging on me about ending college,” Megan tells Rolling Stone, “so I was like, you know what? I’m not just accomplishing it for myself, I’m undertaking it for them much too. I want them to be so proud.”
The rapper now has a Texas Southern scholarship in her title, Thee Megan Fund. She has also expressed her motivation to open assisted residing services in Houston, encouraged by watching her grandmother treatment for her good-grandmother, and generate work opportunities for new university graduates in the town.
“Not only was she good at bringing awareness to our system at the university, she was a very good citizen in the plan and an asset to her fellow students,” Rasmus states. “We’re happy of her achievements and shelling out it forward by means of the college.”