Celebrities Who Have Their College Degrees - Our Youth Need To Know

Our online, print and broadcast news is filled with celebrity happenings, their drama and the like. It appears that some celebrities influencing our youth, unfortunately, have their dirty laundry aired. Some of these celebrities possess something that would be wonderful to air in front of our youth and I wish they would air it. The majority of Reality TV shows, movies, and songs offer no real educational value to our children, in fact they rarely mention in its confines the pursuit of education; I guess that's why it's called Entertainment. Things that are aired concerning celebrities are their community and worldwide projects they take on, contributions they make to organizations, their assets, marriages, divorces, and scandals. Did I miss anything?

So here is what I wish celebrities would air - their college degrees. Since our impressionable youth have their eyes on celebrities what an encouragement, or even a surprise, it would be for our youth to know that their favorite celebrity has a college degree. If some of our youth knew this, maybe it would spark an interest to want to attend and graduate from college. It would be great for our youth to hear that some celebrities graduated from college before they pursued a career in acting, music, or in another highly visible arena, or that some took a career break to complete their college education. Check out this list of tuition free colleges and universities at www.hubpages.com/hub/Free-Tuition-Colleges. As I did some research it was a pleasure to see some of the celebrities who earned their college degrees.

I have compiled a short list of celebrities and their alma maters according to published reports. It's rare that we hear of a celebrity's college degree but our youth need to know. It appears that a college degree is less of a priority for today's rising stars, but since becoming a celebrity is not an everyday occurrence for our youth, a college degree, I feel, is the next best thing for a young person to becoming a celebrity in their own little world. I felt like a celebrity in my world when I earned my four year college degree. This accomplishment has given me confidence to pursue other passions. I'm a children's book author and sometimes I get treated like a celebrity (SMILE).

A great idea would be for those college degree holding celebrities to host a Celebrity College Night for our youth - they host other TV specials. Why not have a panel of celebrities discussing the following:

• How they got through college
• Who supported them
• Why they chose a particular field of study
• What made them attend the college they went to
• How long it took them to graduate
• Did they attend college before, during, or after they became famous

The final climax of the TV special should be each celebrity will fund one college student through all four years. With the following criteria:

• The student must be 17 to 25 years old
• The student must be full-time
• The student must not have defaulted on any previous loans
• There must be a cap on the amount of tuition paid
• The celebrity will fund a four-year degree ONLY
• The celebrity will make funds payable to the educational institution
• The student will update the celebrity funding their degree, yes this means showing the celebrity your grades, if asked
• The student must finish the degree in no less than five years

I think this is a real good plan? Don't you?

• Dr. Phil McGraw - Host of the Dr. Phil Show. Graduated from Midwestern State University with a degree in Psychology
• Denzel Washington - Actor. Studied Drama and Journalism and graduated from Fordham University (I'm originally from the Bronx, so I say way to go!)
• Ashley Judd - Actress. Studied French and graduated from the University of Kentucky
• Jodie Foster - Actress. Received her Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Yale University
• Conan O'Brien - Talk Show Host. Studied History and graduated from Harvard University
• Hill Harper - Actor. Received his Juris Doctor from Harvard University
• Adam Sandler - Actor. Received his Masters of Fine Arts from New York University
• Shaquille O'Neal - Professional Basketball Player. Received a degree in General Studies from Louisiana State University
• Angela Bassett - Actress. Graduated with a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Yale University School of Drama
• Oprah Winfrey - Talk Show Host. Studied Speech and Drama and graduated from Tennessee State University