Yara Shahidi wants to have a genuine "college experience" when she goes to Harvard University.
The 18-year-old actress is due to start at the prestigious American college, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the coming weeks and although she is due to begin production on the second season of ‘Grown-ish’ at a similar time she wants to fully embrace her education.
Yara won’t accept "this idea that people perpetuate that you have to choose between education and entertainment" and she intends to make the most of every opportunity at the school.
In an interview with the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter, she said: "I want to have as much of a college experience as possible. That’s why I decided to apply in the first place."
Shahidi – who got a letter of recommendation from former First Lady Michelle Obama for Harvard – has always been a studious person and always enjoyed her school work as much as her acting.
She said: "I’m that annoying person in class where if we were reading a book, I’d not only read that book, I’d read one similar, written in the same era, to find the commonalities. So, if we were reading about the French Revolution
in AP Euro, I’d be like, ‘OK, let me read Candide and Voltaire’s [other works].’"
Just as Yara has lofty ambitions for her life she believes that her generation will go on to surprise the world because they are "socially engaged".
She explained: "The thing people don’t fully understand about my generation is just how multifaceted we are.
"Oftentimes, people like to oversimplify what [we] believe in or do, whether that’s, ‘Oh, you’re on your phones all the time,’ or, ‘Oh, you’re very self-centered,’ but what I’ve seen from my peers is that we’re socially engaged and curious about the world."
The young star – who recently marked her birthday with a political themed party – has become somewhat of an activist and a voice for her peers since being in the limelight and in particular following the launch of EighteenX18 – her own project centered on youth voter registration.
A statement on the official website explains how the initiative was "designed to uplift our generation of voters to take action into our own hands and discover the issues that impact us through our own stories and experiences."
On her inspiration behind EighteenX18, Yara said: "My passion really stemmed from having gone through the 2016 election, where myself and many of my peers were unable to vote.
"A lot of them went with their parents to the polls, but there was that feeling of being lost. Like, ‘What can we do to contribute to our sociopolitical landscape?’"
Yara Shahidi wants genuine college experience
