Rihanna Receives Humanitarian Award At Harvard

As one of the world's most renowned female singers of today, Rihanna's contribution has been no doubt been impactful. And because of Rihanna's work in her native island of Barbados and the charities she has founded over the years, the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations honored her with the 2017 Harvard Humanitarian of the Year award.

Rihanna thanked the university for the honour and delivered an inspiring speech, starting off of course with a little pat on the back for her achievement.

"So I made it to Harvard," Rihanna began as she flipped her hair. "Never thought I'd be able to say that in my life, but it feels good."

She added, "I would think to myself, 'I wonder how many 25 cents I could save up to save all the kids in Africa.' And I would say to myself, 'When I grow up and I get rich, I'm gonna save kids all over the world.' I just didn't know I would be in a position to do that by the time I was a teenager".

"All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return. To me, that is a humanitarian." She added, "What that little girl watching those commercials didn't know is that you don't have to be rich to be a humanitarian, you don't have to be rich to help somebody. You don't have to be famous, you don't even have to be college educated. But it starts with your neighbor... you just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can."

Watch Rihanna receive her humanitarian award and see her full speech below: