America’s Got Talent host and Wild’n Out producer/host Nick Cannon is starting his freshman year of college at 35.
“I am using these airplanes like school buses,” he joked in an interview with ET. “I get Tuesday and Wednesday off ‘til AGT is over and then my full credits kick in.”
Cannon has become an outspoken voice on social and political issues over the years, and he sees this decision as an extension of that.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I truly feel like it’s the next stage in my life,” Cannon said. “Entertainment is outstanding but I truly want to utilize my voice, I want to be a part of the community, and I’m always encouraging young people and being an advocate for education, so I need to make sure I get mine first.”
The choice of Howard University in particular was easy for Cannon.
“I am always seeking new challenges and continual growth and decided to obtain my first college degree from an institution that had a proven legacy of producing great minds. I have friends, mentors and colleagues who attended Howard University,” Cannon said in a statement. “I have heard about the famed Howard Homecoming since I was a kid growing up in California and knew that Howard would be the perfect place for me to further my education.”
His major is a mouthful, but it aligns well with Cannon’s long-term goals.
“The full major is strategic legal and management communications,” he said.
“It’s a long major, but it’s really dealing with, obviously, the law and also the business that we’re all in with communications,” Cannon said. “I felt like I was already into the communications field in doing this for a couple decades and why not get behind it, understand the legal aspects of it, and the strategic management part, so I can continue to build my empire? I’m not just going to start, or stop in 2020. I’m going all the way to get this Ph.D.”
