Actress Jada Pinkett Smith has given an early Christmas present to students and faculty at Smith's alma mater, the Baltimore School for Arts.
Smith donated $1 million to the high school from which she graduated and started her successful acting career. It is the largest cash gift ever from a gradaute of the performing arts school.
The Baltimore School for the Arts announced the donation for renovation and further expansion on Monday, and wanted to name its new theater for her. Smith declined and asked that the theater be dedicated to murdered rapper Tupac Shakur, a fellow classmate.
The donation is from the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, based in Baltimore. Previously they had given $112,500 to the school reported the Baltimore Sun.
When the expansion program is finished, the school plans to increase enrollment and instrumental music production programs.
"It means a lot when you're a teacher and your most famous alumnus comes back to give a donation," said Donald Hicken, head of the school's theater department since its founding in 1980 and Pinkett Smith's former theater teacher. "It really says a lot to the community that the school matters in people's lives."
Karen Banfield Evans, the executive director of the Smith Family Foundation and Smith's aunt, said Jada was moved by the school's advances since she graduated in 1989.
"She credits the School for the Arts for really giving her her start and was impressed by the things they've been doing and the way they've grown," Evans said. "When they came up with this (expansion campaign) and all they're doing, she felt like this is what she needed to do." Reported the Baltimore Examiner.
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