The multi-talented Zendaya can add another entry on her resume. The actress, singer, dancer, author and fashion designer is now also a high school graduate.
“It was great, and a good accomplishment for me,” the “Dancing With the Stars” runner-up declared to Access Hollywood of her milestone. Zendaya revealed she was worried her commencement ceremony would be “awkward” since her busy work load kept her from maintaining a regular class schedule alongside her fellow students.
“I knew like two people,” the former Disney Channel star confessed. “But it was still fun, and everyone was really nice to me. … I went up for rehearsals and everyone was cheering.”
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Zendaya completed her curriculum through an independent study program. The arrangement may have prevented the starlet from attending school on campus like other students, but it did allow her to balance a budding career that kicked into high gear with a role on “Shake It Up” in 2010.
“I’ve been working so hard at school and, literally, for the past however many years that I’ve been doing this business and school at the same time, it is so hard,” she continued. “Thankfully, I have teacher parents and an amazing set teacher and an amazing teacher at my school, and collectively they all kept motivating me and pushing me.”
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The temptation to take the easy route was certainly there, she admitted, but thanks to a solid support system her goals stayed intact.
“There were many times where I was like, ‘I just wanna take the [GED] test!’ but no,” she said. “I want that diploma and I want to graduate, and I did it.”
As for plans to further her education, Zendaya revealed it’s an absolute priority, but one she keeps on the distant horizon.
“I definitely want to go to college,” she said, joking that her growing success could help keep her options all the more open.
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“I think I’d rather wait, because careers go any kind of way. So, I’d rather keep going while I can and hopefully make enough money to buy the college I want to go to,” she chuckled.
Despite her expertise in the entertainment industry, Zendaya explained why eventually pursuing a secondary degree is important to her for entirely different reasons.
“Honestly, I just want to be able to go to school because I want to learn,” she revealed. “This is something I’m passionate about and probably has nothing to do with the arts at all — just something different because I really want to get that knowledge. It’s definitely gonna happen, just not this very second.”
Of course, inspiration often starts at home – a concept with which Zendaya is all too familiar.
“Two parents are teachers,” she said with a knowing stare. “It has to happen.”
— Erin Biglow
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