Stormzy just donated £9,000 to help send a student to Harvard

Further evidence has emerged that Stormzy is a Very Great Dude. 

The grime superstar’s enormous £9,000 contribution to a fan’s Crowdfunding campaign means that she’s now raised enough to study at Harvard. 

Fiona Asiedu, from South London, is in the final year of her undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, and has a Master’s offer from one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. 

Factoring in an external scholarship, financial assistance from the University and family contributions, she had four weeks to find the remaining £12,000 needed to continue her education in the US.

“As a young black woman, from an inner city, working class background, this is such an amazing opportunity,” she wrote in the initial appeal. “Ultimately, I believe that this will encourage young people from similar backgrounds to aspire for greatness and reach their full potential! I really do hope that I am able to make my vision into a reality WITH YOUR HELP!”

Enter this man.

The campaign was initially brought to the Croydon-born artist’s attention by one of Fiona’s friends. A tweet asking if he could help out was then shared by another user, and eventually retweeted by Stormzy.

Just promoting her story to his 696k followers would have been a big boost to Fiona’s chances, but he went one further. It’s been confirmed to BBC Newsbeat that a £9,000 pledge was made by Stormzy himself, initially showing up under his real name, Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Junior. It has since been made anonymous, but this much we know: it was Stormzy, and the Crowdfunding page has now well surpassed its initial target.

He’s kept very quiet about his heart-warmingly generous contribution, but did respond to the original friend’s offer of a Nando’s to say thank you (obviously).

It’s been something of a whirlwind 24 hours for Fiona, who said she’s “overwhelmed” to now officially be heading to Harvard in the summer. 

“I just want to take this time to express my sincere appreciation to EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU who contributed to the success of this campaign,” read a lengthy post uploaded to Twitter. “I had prepared to spend the next 4 weeks promoting the campaign (despite having my final year exam in 3 weeks) but through the power of social media and the phenomenal support of my family and friends who shared, retweeted, liked and donated to the #SW2Harvard campaign, we surpassed the target in less than 24 hours.”

Fittingly, she referenced one of his songs in another tweet, writing, “BLINDED. BY. HIS. GRACE.”

Good on you, Stormzy.