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When it comes to handling his charitable duties, Jay Z tapped someone he knew he could fully trust; his mother. Gloria Carter recently discussed running the Shawn Carter Foundation, and of course, how she spends time with her grandchildren, including Blue Ivy. 

Fully aware that drug dealer made good narrative is a rare one, the Shawn Carter Foundation focuses on more realistic ways that underprivileged kids can advance.

Reports USA Today:

Certainly, the career trajectory of Shawn Carter — better known to most of us as rapper/entrepreneur/cultural icon Jay Z — would seem to prove that theory. But Ms. Carter is well aware that her younger son’s story is an exceptional one, and hardly represents the most practical model for success.

That’s why, in 2003, she and Jay Z launched the foundation, a registered public charity that aims to give young people facing socioeconomic hardships access to institutions of higher learning.

“The underserved have so many problems,” says Carter, sitting in her modest office at the Midtown headquarters for Roc Nation, Jay Z’s entertainment company. “Sometimes they need someone to give them a hand.”

Reportedly, the Shawn Carter Foundation has provided $2.4M in support of scholarships, college tours, study-abroad programs and other philanthropic events like meal and toy drives. Scholarships have been provided to 176 students across the country.

Running her son’s foundation wasn’t purely nepotism, too.

Carter herself worked 30 years for the New York City comptroller, moving from clerk to investment analyst. After she and Jay Z’s father separated, following 13 years of marriage, she essentially raised her four children — two sons and two daughters — on her own. (The foundation’s scholarship recipients include single moms as well.) “Sometimes I took on an extra job as a security guard to make ends meet,” Carter says.

She continued working after Jay Z’s career began taking off. “Jay had a problem with that,” Carter recalls, smiling gently. He and his siblings eventually arranged a meeting “to talk to me about retiring.” She was persuaded, but a year after doing so she started getting itchy. “I was bored.”

Read the full story over at USA Today.

Photo: WENN.com