Ten years after Lemonade, the women Beyoncé Knowles-Carter believed in are building careers, communities, and credentials that prove what a scholarship can unlock.
Ten years ago this week, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter released Lemonade without a single word, rollout, or warning. On April 23, 2016, her sixth studio album and its accompanying film dropped without notice, and the world stopped moving for a moment. The visual album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, won two Grammy Awards, and became one of the most studied and celebrated bodies of work in modern music history.
But the story of Lemonade at ten is not only about the music. It is about what Beyoncé Knowles-Carter decided to do with the moment.
The Scholarship That Started It All
One year after the album’s release, BeyGOOD turned the anniversary into action. On April 24, 2017, Beyoncé announced the Formation Scholars program, a merit-based scholarship for young women ‘unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, creative, conscious, and confident.’ The program supported students pursuing studies in creative arts, music, literature, and African American Studies at four institutions: Berklee College of Music, Parsons School of Design, Howard University, and Spelman College.
The application required a portfolio and a response to one question: How has Lemonade inspired your educational goals?
Four women answered and won. The inaugural Formation Scholars were Sadiya Ramos of Berklee College of Music, Avery Youngblood of Parsons School of Design, Maya Rogers of Howard University, and Bria Paige of Spelman College.
Where They Are Now
BeyGOOD recently reconnected with the scholars to document their journeys, and the updates are worth reading closely.
Sadiya Ramos is now based in Brooklyn, building a professional dance career that sits at the intersection of artistry and community advocacy. She recently partnered with the Brooklyn Public Library to host a menstrual product drive at the Macon Library in Bed-Stuy, raising $1,385 in partnership with the organization For Women By Women, which funded menstrual products for approximately 300 people across all five boroughs of New York City. Her creative vision extends into film, where she is working to bring more dance to the screen and expand how movement functions in visual storytelling.
Bria Paige’s trajectory may be the most direct example of what a well-placed scholarship can set in motion. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College in 2019, completed her master’s degree from Rutgers University in 2022, and is currently a 2025-2027 Thurgood Marshall Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellow in African and African American Studies at Dartmouth College. She also holds a 2025-2026 Association of American University Women Dissertation Fellowship. Her doctoral research, nearing completion at Rutgers, centers on Black women’s exhaustion as theorized alongside 20th and 21st-century Black women writers and scholars. After finishing her postdoctoral fellowship, she plans to enter higher education as a professor.
“Receiving the Formation Scholarship years ago affirmed me on this path,” Paige shared, “and not only gave me the confidence to continue to pursue my career goals, but also the financial freedom to do so. That feeling is priceless.”
A Ph.D. candidate. A Dartmouth fellow. A future professor shaping the academic conversation around Black women’s lives. That is a direct return on investment.
The Formation Scholars program was not a one-time gesture. BeyGOOD’s history page documents a decade of consecutive scholarship commitments, each one tied to a cultural moment and structured to create real financial access.
A Giving Strategy That Has Not Stopped
Following the Formation Scholars, BeyGOOD launched the Homecoming Scholars Award Program for the 2018-2019 academic year, honoring HBCU culture in the wake of Beyoncé’s landmark Coachella performance. Eight students from Xavier, Wilberforce, Tuskegee, Bethune-Cookman, Texas Southern, Fisk, Grambling State, and Morehouse each received $25,000.
Then came the Renaissance era. When Beyoncé announced the Renaissance World Tour, BeyGOOD committed $2 million total: $1 million to small business entrepreneurs through Black Parade Route luncheons in cities along the tour route, and another $1 million distributed among 10 colleges and universities, with each school receiving $100,000 to fund student scholarships. Schools including Jackson State University, Grambling State University, Dillard University, and Prairie View A&M were among the recipients.
Most recently, the Cécred x BeyGOOD Fund launched its second iteration with a $500,000 commitment, offering $370,000 in business grants to 37 salon and barbershop owners and $130,000 in scholarships distributed across five cosmetology schools nationwide.
The through line is consistent: find the people already doing the work, and remove the financial wall standing between them and their potential.
Ten Years of Returns
As Lemonade turns ten, the cultural conversation is rightly focused on the album’s legacy. But BeyGOOD is a reminder that legacy is not only measured in streaming numbers or critical rankings. It is measured by the researcher at Dartmouth, who almost did not have the funding to get there. It is measured in the dancer in Brooklyn who is now building a community around period poverty because someone invested in her art first. As the foundation moves into its next decade, BeyGOOD is introducing the Renaissance Scholars as a continued commitment to student education. The work is not winding down.
Ten years after Lemonade asked what Black women are worth, BeyGOOD has been answering that question consistently, with dollars, structures, and follow-through.
