Big Sean To Be Principal For A Day In Hometown

Hip-hop recording artist and Detroit native, Big Sean will return to his hometown to act as "Principal for the Day" at Bates Academy.

Bates competed against thousands of students from 37 Detroit Public Schools' middle and high schools and won the Get Schooled Detroit Attendance Challenge.

Shade 45 radio, a Sirius XM station, host Sway will serve as host and emcee of the day's events along with local radio personality, DJ Fingers, of FM 98 WJLB.

In an effort to combat chronic absenteeism across the district, DPS partnered with Get Schooled and its founding partner, Viacom, through the company's Viacommunity social responsibility umbrella, to offer the Detroit Attendance Challenge in support of the district's "On Time. All Day.

Every Day." Campaign. To participate and compete for points and prizes, schools encouraged their students to show up for school every day and check-in to school daily on GetSchooled.com.

"The correlation between success in life and daily attendance in school is inarguable," said Big Sean.

"As a former DPS student, I could not be more proud of the district for taking the issue of attendance seriously, and of Bates Academy for its awesome achievement.

I'm excited to have the chance to celebrate the students' commitment to showing up for school, all day, every day."

The Get Schooled Student Leadership Corps is a partnership with Detroit-based nonprofit, the Coleman A. Young Foundation CAYF. At the recommendation of The Skillman Foundation, Get Schooled tapped the longstanding CAYF to serve as the implementation partner for the new initiative.

As principal for the day, Big Sean will help launch the Corps' inaugural class of 30 students from across DPS. He will join Sway, Mike Grams, metro Detroit native and Chief Operating Officer of Taco Bell, and Get Schooled Executive Director, Marie Groark, along with senior leadership from DPS in a conversation about leadership with the inaugural class of the Get Schooled Leadership Corps.

"Detroit students have been working hard all year to boost their attendance," said Marie Groark, Executive Director of Get Schooled.

"We are excited Big Sean is able to recognize their hard work and determination, and even more thrilled that he will be able to join us for the announcement of our first-ever student leadership corps, right here in Detroit."

Big Sean attended the Detroit Waldorf School, a school of art, from kindergarten to eighth grade. He later attended and graduated from Cass Technical High School.

He was first signed to Kanye West's music label GOOD in 2007 and then to Island Def Jam in 2008.

Following the release of the trilogy of mixtapes for which he was initially recognized, Def Jam dropped the artist's hit album, Finally Famous in July of 2011, followed by the award-winning mixtape Detroit in September 2012 and Hall of Fame, which debuted at number three in the Billboard 200, in August of 2013.

"I am beyond pleased by the hard work and dedication our students have demonstrated throughout the course of this campaign," said Dr. Cleo M. Moody, principal at Bates Academy. "Get Schooled has done a remarkable job of making the very important issue of attendance relevant to students by connecting it to popular culture. Seeing our kids come together in pursuit of a common goal that resulted in improved attendance and an increased level of engagement, was truly rewarding."

For more details on the Get Schooled campaign, visit www.getschooled.com. To learn more about the new DPS Attendance Policy, visit www.detroitk12.org/attendance

Photo courtesy of Dante Marshall