Media mogul P'Diddy whose real name is Sean Combs got awarded a honorary doctorate degree in humanities from Howard University, where he dropped off from as a student some years ago. He didn't finish his degree programme and left to join the music industry, but was however honoured by the school and even gave a commencement speech during the graduation ceremony.
When he was first announced as the commencement speaker, some Howard University students were very upset since he was a drop out. But all that changed during the ceremony. Dressed in full graduation regalia, complete with gold tassel on his black cap, Combs told the audience that enrolling at Howard changed his life. And although he left the university before graduating, he never forgot his Howard family. He told the audience:
“Only this family could take one of its sons who already had three name changes and
give him a fourth. It’s good to be home. I am humbled to be in such great company.
Despite his success, Combs said there have been times when he wished he’d had a degree. “If I didn’t leave school early, I would have been more prepared,” he said, recalling moments in board rooms when he wished he’d completed that economics course and memos that would have been more polished had he finished his studies.
In the 1990s, when most of his friends were graduating from Howard, Diddy had been fired from his first job as talent director at Uptown Records, his girlfriend was 8 months plus pregnant, and he had just bought a house in Arizona that he could not afford. He said he could have given up and let the darkness swallow him. Instead, “I had to decide to be my own light.”
He added:
One day, you’re going to be sitting in the dark like I was, thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’ In that moment, I want you to remember the power in you. Nobody is going to take you to the front of the line — you need to push to the front of the line.”
Big congrats to him. Diddy is now Dr Sean Combs! More photos below:
