There's many ways we can describe the great Angela Bassett: Academy Award-nominated actress, Golden Globe winner, activist, Black Panther star, and now, doctor.
Yes, you read that right. After receiving an honorary degree from Yale University at its 2018 commencement ceremony on Monday, the 59-year-old star is now officially Dr. Angela Bassett.
Monday's honorary degree is Bassett's third. When she first entered Yale, she wanted to major in theatre. However, her aunt had begged her not to "waste [her] Yale education on theater," fearing that Bassett wouldn't be able to make it as an actress. She listened to her, choosing a administrative science major instead. But in junior year, Bassett realized she was about to fail because she wasn't pursuing a degree she was passionate about — so she want back to her original plans.
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She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in African American Studies in 1980, which was followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama in 1983.
The rest is, well, history.
The actress shared a video of the commencement ceremony on Instagram, writing: "Hey Everybody you good? My heart is full! God blessed me REAL good! Thank you @yale for this blessed honor!"
She added the hashtags: #mommawouldbesoproud, #wakandaforeverthrougheducation, and #blessedandhighlyfavored.
Bassett was part of a group of ten people selected to receive honorary degrees as part of the 2018 graduating class.
"We are absolutely thrilled to honor the ten honorants," Yale’s vice president for communications Eileen O’Connor said in a statement. "They are all deserving of the degrees and [were chosen] through a process of careful selection, and we’re really excited to have them here to celebrate the graduation of the class of 2018."
Among those who received honorary degrees alongside Bassett were famous astrophysicist and cosmologist Neil deGrasse Tyson, poet and former Yale professor Elizabeth Alexander, British film theorist Laura Mulvey, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Marilynne Robinson, biochemist and Yale professor Richard Lifton, jazz musician Willie Ruff, primatologist and ethologist Frans de Waal, Israeli-American computer scientist and philosopher Judea Pearl, and theologian and bishop Rowan Williams.
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