The legendary hip-hop star has been taking progressive steps in philanthropy over the last couple of years. He executive produced an independent documentary following young b boy and b girls who lived across the globe, has a fellowship program named after him at Harvard University and continues to place support and investments into the advancement of people and youth of color publicly and privately. Nasir Jones’ latest philanthropic effort has been geared toward encouraging diversity in the tech field.
Complex reported, “A new fund being created by General Assembly, a private New York City technical school with a bent toward programming and engineering, is hoping to redress the dearth of minority participation in the tech sphere. The so-called “Opportunity Fund” will offer scholarships to women, veterans, African-Americans and Latinos—all groups who have historically and systematically been denied equal access to the sciences.”
The rapper has become a financial backer of the scholarship fund along with Google, Microsoft and Hirepurpose. He heads an investment fund called QueensBridge Venture Partners.
The Root reported, “As with most careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), African-American, Latino and female software engineers are sparse. So Nas, alongside corporate heavy hitters like Microsoft and Google, is doling out scholarship money to people hoping to attend General Assembly—a coding school with locations in New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, London and Washington, D.C. “