Popstar Rihanna has accepted the award for Harvard University's Humanitarian of the Year becoming the first black female artist to do so.
The Grammy Award winner was handed the Peter J. Gomes humanitarian award, before addressing students and spectators at a ceremony on Wednesday (local time).
Rihanna has been involved with several charities including building a centre for oncology and nuclear medicine to diagnose and treat breast cancer in her native Barbados.
The pop singer began her speech joking "so I made it to Harvard", flicking her ponytail as the watching students clapped and cheered.
"Never thought I'd be able to say that in my life, but it feels good."
She told the crowd when she was a child she wanted to "get rich" so she could save children across the world.
"I just didn't know I would be in the position to do that by the time I was a teenager."
She also told the crowd everyone had a chance to be a humanitarian and you didn't have to be college educated, prompting laughs and cheers from the students.
"We're all human and we all just want a chance - a chance at life, at an education, at a future, really."
Newshub.