Just like her television character, Yara Shahidi, from black-ish and its spinoff grown-ish, has just graduated from college. But she graduated from Harvard! Yara completed a dual degree from the African American Studies and Social Studies departments, her concentration being “Black political thought under a neocolonial landscape.” The graduation ceremony was on Friday and Yara wore a super cute Dior suit under her graduation gown.
Alumn-ish much?
Yara Shahidi of “Black-ish” and “Grown-ish” fame graduated from Harvard University on Friday, and posted about the achievement on her Instagram.
“Yara (noun): a Harvard graduate 👩🏾🎓 #ITSOFFICIAL #CLASSOF2022,” wrote the 22-year-old actress in the caption accompanying two photos of herself clad in graduation regalia.
Beneath the traditional cap-and-gown ensemble, Shahidi donned a two-piece Dior suit in Harvard’s signature crimson red hue, reported Vogue.
Shahidi began as a freshman at Harvard in 2017 in the same class as Malia Obama —though the former president’s eldest daughter graduated in 2021 while Shahidi took a gap year that pushed her into the class of 2022.
As an undergrad at the revered institution, the actress balanced dual academic tracks across both the Social Studies and African American Studies departments, according to Vogue.
Her concentration, “Black political thought under a neocolonial landscape,” culminated this spring as she completed her final semester, capping her achievements with a 136-page senior thesis.
This would be seriously impressive on its own, but is even more so considering that Yara is the lead on grown-ish and the show has been filming this whole time. And they weren’t short seasons, they were full 13-21 episode seasons. Though the show is on Freeform so the two halves were split up a bit differently than on network TV. Seriously, how did she do it? There were points where she was flying back and forth across the country to complete work and school duties. It’s hard enough to go to school, and then also have a job, and then have that job be beyond full-time hours. Also, between scripts and schoolwork that’s a lot of reading and remembering. Wow. This is a wonderful achievement and I love that Yara took the time to attend college in addition to her successful and promising acting career. It’s nice that she seems to value education for education’s sake and she will have other options if she ever decides to transition out of acting. (black-ish recently had its series finale after eight seasons, but grown-ish is continuing with the next eldest kid as the college student and Yara will continue to appear on the show for a while).
I’ve had such a deep love for her over the years. That whole cast seem like such solidly decent humans.
Congratulations! I love the pic where her mom is bursting with pride. Way to go!
Wow so impressed. Reading about her schedule is exhausting mush less doing it!
Fantastic! She always seems like she has a good head on her shoulders.
Congratulations!
Love the pics, Mom proud and happy too. I like the dark, floral dress a lot.
Congratulations to her! I work with students who are writing their senior theses and that is a lot of work! Impressive to have done it with such a rigorous schedule.
She is really talented, smart, and cool. I adore she pursued her education and she has always been open about what a priority it is for her. I also love her dual degree concentration. She has been an activist for years and I have to think all the learning she has done will fuel and inform her continued activism.
Wow! That’s fantastic! Congratulations! It IS hard enough going to school without other pressures.
Go Yara! Well done, Congratulations!
Super impressed by this. I love that she chose to do this despite already being successful. I think an education – if it doesn’t bury in debt – is never ever wasted, whether you choose to work in a related field or not. And I would imagine that her majors will influence the type of projects she chooses in the future or even creates/writes for/produces herself.
Congrats!
Yes!!!! Congratulations to Yara, what an accomplishment.
Well done! I remember her as the little girl in Salt and then Blackest. Where has time gone?!
Love this. Congratulations! Great accomplishment.
Spelling error I mean Blackish
Caught that spelling error. It’s cute and made me smile.
Well done, Yara!
Yay!!! Such a great kid. Love that picture with her mom.
I adore her and love everything about this article and the outfit she helped design that she wore under her gown. Can’t wait to see what she does next!
I don’t know much about her specifically, but I have so much respect for young actors who have success in the industry and still choose to pursue an education. That’s really admirable. Good for her! And her concentration sounds fascinating.
Don’t forget she also done at least one movie during that time too
This is awesome!
Very impressive and her thesis sounds very interesting too!
Bursting with pride at this! Well done.
She is such an impressive woman, I can’t imagine how she juggled all that to make her schedule work, but she did it. Congrats to her!
I always feel so proud of anyone who graduates. It’s a lot of work and takes dedication, regardless of whether or not you’re famous. Good for her. She’s a true role model.
Congratulations! I’m exhausted just thinking about her schedule. Harvard is no stranger to celebrity students dividing time between school and work, but with so many good universities in California that would be an equally as impressive accomplishment without the lengthy commute, I’m extra impressed at the effort to attend Harvard.
What an impressive woman! I will enjoy seeing where her path leads.
On a superficial note, I absolutely love her outfit choice. Perfection.
Now can we talk about Mom? That woman’s style is everything!
I’m so impressed by her. A 136 page paper, I would die.
On a related note, ABC network alumni Hudson Yang from Fresh off the boat just finished his first year at Harvard. These young entertainers getting a solid education on top of everything is just wonderful to see. Though Yara is certainly more ambitious in filming on top of school
My 13 yo daughter is a huge fan, and when she (my daughter) was about six, I met Yara at a fundraiser and she did the sweetest facetime call with my daughter. She is sweetheart.