The Jolie-Pitt kids continue to grow up. Three years after Maddox Jolie-Pitt headed off to college, it’s now his sister’s turn. Zahara Jolie-Pitt will attend Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, this fall, according to her mother, Angelina Jolie. “Zahara with her Spelman sisters!” Angelina, 47, wrote when sharing a photo of Zahara, 17, and her fellow sisters on her Instagram on July 31. “Congratulations to all new students starting this year. A very special place and an honor to have a family member as a new Spelman girl.”
Spelman College is an HBCU (“historically black college or university”) which the U.S. Department of Education says are a “source of accomplishment and great pride for the African American community as well as the entire nation…HBCUs offer all students, regardless of race, an opportunity to develop their skills and talents. These institutions train young people who go on to serve domestically and internationally in the professions as entrepreneurs and in the public and private sectors.” For Zahara, it’s an opportunity to thrive in an environment that celebrates the Black experience in America.
“My daughter is from Ethiopia, one of my children,” Angie said during a Time 100 Talk in July 2020, per USA Today. “And I have learned so much from her. She is my family, but she is an extraordinary African woman and her connection to her country, her continent, is her own, and it’s something I only stand back in awe of.”
Notable Spelman alumni include Stacey Abrams, Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker, actresses Keshia Knight Pulliam, LaTanya Richardson, and Esther Rolle, civil rights activist Maxine Smith, and mathematician Talitha Washington.
Maddox, 20, was the first of Angelina and Brad Pitt’s kids to attend college. He began his first year at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, in the Fall of 2019. Angie spoke about how she had an “ugly cry” when dropping off her baby at school. “I also, just at some point, had the big [sun]glasses and the [number] of times I turned and waved,” Angelina said in 2019. “I do know it was the one moment in my life I think I turned around six times before the airport just…and he sweetly stayed and kept waving, knowing that I was going to keep turning around. You could feel he knew he couldn’t leave.”
Angie also shared that Maddox’s siblings – Zahara, Pax, Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne – also made the trip to South Korea to see him off. “When you know that your kids love each other,” said Angie, “and you see the way they all — without any kind of prompting or pushing — give each other notes, hug each other, take each other, support each other, then you feel like they’re going to be okay and they’re always going to have each other.”