Pitbull shares latest details on his Arizona charter school
Rapper Pitbull gave an update on plans to open a SLAM public charter school in Mesa at the inaugural Gateway Celebrity Fight Night on March 12.
The K-5 school, SLAM! Arizona Elementary, is now enrolling students and is set to open in August 2022. The entertainer, also known as Mr. Worldwide, first announced plans for the school in 2018 at Woz U’s DesTechAZ consortium of technology leaders, entrepreneurs and government officials.
He shared the latest details on the project while he was in town for his Fight Night performance.
“I think a lot of people look at giving back as a responsibility,” Pitbull told The Republic. “I see it as an obligation. If you’ve been blessed to be able to be at a certain level in your life, a certain platform,
then you should lead by example, and always give back. Living is giving.”
“One time I saw Denzel Washington, he was a keynote speaker,” he continued. “And he said, ‘I’ve never seen a hearse with a U-haul truck behind it.’ So what does that mean? There’s nothing that we take with us, no matter what we acquire in life. It’s all about what we leave behind and what we give back.”
What are Pitbull’s SLAM Schools?
This isn’t the first time the entertainer, whose real name is Armando Christian Pérez, has funded educational endeavors.
The internationally renowned artist opened two charter schools in Miami in 2013 — a high school called Sports Leadership Academy of Miami and a middle school called Sports Leadership and Management. The SLAM Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization that represents 12 public charter schools in underrepresented communities, per its website.
The SLAM schools, which operate in Nevada, Florida, Georgia and soon
Arizona, use a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-focused curriculum and sports-related themes to prepare students for careers in sports medicine, sports media production and sports marketing.
SLAM stands for science, leadership, arts and management.
“Let’s show the world what happens when Miami and Arizona gets together to do some amazing things,” Pitbull said during his performance.
Pitbull, who also calls himself Mr. 305 after the area code in Miami, said the new building’s number is 305. He’ll be back in Arizona for his tour, “Can’t Stop Us Now” at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale on May 27.
“God is so big, law of attraction is so real,” he said. “So SLAM coming soon to Arizona, and I’m coming to Arizona, and we putting it down with Gateway at Celebrity Fight Night. It goes to show you, you can’t stop us now.”
Pitbull has a long history of giving back
Pitbull, who lost his father, brother and mother to cancer, has a history of philanthropy. In 2017 he sent his private plane to Puerto Rico to bring cancer patients to the mainland for chemotherapy treatments. He has also been heavily involved with the Christian nonprofit World Vision Foundation. He was named a “Clean Water Here Global Ambassador” after receiving the 2018 World Water Champion Award for his advocacy for all people to have safe water.
He closed his Fight Night performance by announcing that he and his team would donate $50,000 to Gateway Center for Research.
This new opening in Mesa carries on his vision and philosophy of giving. His grandmother, aunt, mom, father and a teacher, Hope Martinez, are a few of people who have inspired him to give, he said.
“I have a saying that I say all the time, ‘If you don’t know where you’re from, you don’t know where you’re going. If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.’ They taught me always, what they went through in order for me to enjoy this beautiful country called the United States of America, and to be able to build something with my life. As I say, ‘why dream when you can live it,’ and to be able to live my dreams and with that said, to be able to always give back. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.”