Lupita Nyong'o surprises 40 students with $13,900 scholarships

Lupita Nyong'o has surprised 40 students with US$10,000 (S$13,900) scholarships.

The 39-year-old actress appeared at the The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's ACT-SO Awards on Sunday (July 17) and presented the scholarships to students who were part of the year-long programme.

The programmed aimed at high school students across the US, which promotes growth in subjects like business, visual arts, performing arts and culinary arts.

As reported by ABC, she said on stage: "Since I was a child, I have always had big dreams, and my education has played a huge part in helping me realise them.

"I've always loved learning and I believe that learners change the world."

The 40 scholarships were funded through a partnership with cosmetic brand Lancome, which counts Lupita among their brand ambassadors.

She added: "I am so thrilled to join Lancome, on behalf of their Write Her Future Scholarship Fund, to award this incredible group of women with these game-changing scholarships."

Lupita — who was born to Kenyan parents Dorothy Ogada Buyu and Peter Anyang' Nyong'o — previously hailed her mother and aunts as her "idols" growing up.

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She said: "I grew up with a very strong and close family, so my idols were a lot of my relatives, especially my aunties and my mother."

The Academy Award-winner then went on to cite classic films such as The Sound of Music and The Color Purple as memorable movies from her youth, noting that seeing "dark-skinned" women like herself act had a "big impact" on her childhood.

She added: "When it comes to film and TV, I was madly in love with The Sound of Music. Fraulein Maria [played by Julie Andrews] was my idea of the perfect governess I wish I had.

"And then, of course, The Color Purple. I've talked about this a lot but [that movie] had a really big effect on me.

"Seeing Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg and Akosua Busia, all these actors who look like me and doing this thing called acting, had a big impact on me and what was possible for me in the world of entertainment for someone like me."