What did Yara Shahidi study in her undergrad? Education explored as ‘Black-ish’ star graduates from Harvard University

Actress Yara Shahidi has finished her college graduation. Shahidi graduated on Thursday from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The institution’s website stated that the commencement for the 2021-22 academic year was held on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Alex Cross star’s father Afshin commemorated the occasion by posting a selfie of them at Harvard. Shahidi was wearing a cap and gown in the picture. The caption reads,

“Beautifully surreal moment seeing our delicate petal in full bloom.”

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Shahidi posted a picture of herself on Tuesday as a kid, putting up two fingers, and wrote that she is graduating in two days. She shared another picture and wrote that she is one day away from graduation.

In another picture with her brothers, Yara said that she is sharing the special moment with her most special ones. Shahidi posted a Boomerang to her Instagram Story which featured her posting alongside her classmates.

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Yara Shahidi’s educational background

While speaking in an interview, Yara Shahidi said that she studied at Harvard University’s Social Studies & African American departments, focusing on black political thought under a neocolonial landscape. She completed a 136-page thesis paper before her diploma and said,

“It’s surreal to have finally hit this major milestone. I’ve known I wanted to go to college since I was four. By 17, I knew exactly what I wanted to study, so to see that come to fruition is a goal fulfilled.”

Yara Shahidi enrolled at Harvard University in 2018 (Image via Leon Bennett/Getty Images)

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The Smallfoot actress enrolled in the Ivy League School in 2017. She previously spoke about her plans to defer for at least a year and said,

“I know when Malia Obama announced [she was deferring], she got a lot of [flack], but I feel like what’s interesting is I know so many people that are deferring. It’s more than to just roam around or just sit down and stare at a wall, but it will also give me an opportunity to work.”

She stated that she has been working for more than half of her life and that has been balanced with school and other responsibilities. She mentioned that having a year to focus on work and specified interests would be nice before she picks a career and chooses what she wishes to study and her life path.

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Yara said in another interview that she got into every college she applied to, like Yale University, Spelman College, and Stanford University, although Harvard has been her dream. While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2018, she said,

“I’ve wanted to be a history professor for longer than I’ve wanted to be an actress. And so I used to have the Harvard webpage up, and I’d go through the course catalog. So needless to say, this is something I’ve been planning for a long time.”

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In brief, about Yara Shahidi

Yara Shahidi has played important roles in a few movies and TV series (Image via Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

Yara Shahidi initially appeared in commercials and print advertisements for companies like McDonald’s, Target, GapKids, Disney, and others. She was six years old at the time.

The 22-year-old made her film debut in the 2009 comedy film Imagine That, and was nominated for a Young Artist Award. She then appeared in the 2010 action thriller, Salt, followed by the 2012 sitcom, The First Family.

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Shahidi appeared on the ABC sitcom Black-ish and won an NAACP Image Award for her performance in 2014. She signed with New York’s Women Management modeling agency in 2016 and appeared in the Black-ish spinoff, Grown-ish, in 2018.

She launched a production company called 7th Sun with her mother in 2020 and signed a deal with ABC Studios. She will next appear in the upcoming Peter Pan remake, Peter Pan & Wendy and the Apple TV+ anthology series Extrapolations.