Pharrell to Open Up Private School in Virginia For Low-Income Families

Six months ago, Pharrell started his non-profit, Black Ambition a non-profit aimed at supporting Black and Latino entrepreneurs launching companies in the tech, design, and healthcare industries. Recently, Pharrell is expanding his philanthropic efforts by opening up a private school for low-income students.

Through Yellow, Pharrell’s education-based non-profit, the multi-platinum producer plans on opening a school, Yellowhab, in Norfolk, VA’s Ghent neighborhood for low-income students. Kids between third grade and fifth grade will be able to be enrolled in the school. Tuition will be free for the first year, with costs to be taken care of by charitable donations.

In the first year, 40 to 50 students will be enrolled in the school. Rather than grouping the kids by grade level, Yellowhab will group children by skill level instead. “The challenge is that if you’re progressing too slow relative to some benchmark, then you’re tagged with that title ‘remedial’ or something like it,” Executive Director Mike McGalliard said. “And that’s detrimental to your evolving self-concept, to your sense of what you can achieve. It’s oppressive, and it’s a weight kids carry.”

In a statement picked up by The Virginian Pilot, Pharrell spoke on the importance of Yellowhab’s bespoke teaching style. “If the system is fixed and unfair, then it needs to be broken,” Williams said. “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 up and take flight.”

As to why Pharrell chose Norfolk to be where the school is located, Williams said that it is due to the city’s housing segregation and because the city is planning on redevelop three public housing complexes.

“Residents [are] being displaced from their homes with potentially limited housing options available which limits options for the children,” Stephanie Walters, Yellow’s director of engagement, told The Pilot. “We have a great relationship with the City of Norfolk and want to be a part of the solution in supporting the community with resources and support.”

Yellowhab’s curriculum will be centered around STEAM, (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), and will open up a middle school after the first year.