Raynya Simmons, a 1990 Boston University College of Communication alum, was honored at the Boston Arts Academy Foundation March 20 as someone who has continuously given back to the community.
The BAA Foundation awarded her at its ninth annual Champions reception, recognizing community members who have shown “commitment to the arts, scholarship, and citizenship” to the students of BAA, according to its website.
For two years, Simmons has been on the Boston Arts Academy Foundation Board, the philanthropic arm of BAA that raises money to help provide staffing, props and clothing to students, she said.
After working on the advisory board for six months, Simmons switched to the BAA Foundation board.
“It’s a better fit for me because I’m a [philanthropist],” she said. “It’s a lover of people, and a giver and supporter of people.”
While Simmons is being awarded for her philanthropy, as an entrepreneur and mother of three, she aims to balance her family and business.
“I call myself the mom-preneur because my family is my priority, so I put them first,” Simmons said.
Simmons, who grew up in Dorchester, said winning this award is a full circle moment for her, as most BAA students are from Dorchester as well.
“My favorite part is the kids are me. They grew up in the same exact neighborhood,” Simmons said. “So it’s like having a mirror…being able to help the students be the best they can and have the best opportunities.”
Simmons said she was raised in a tight-knit community. Being the youngest in a large family, she has always been a “connector,” who cared about relationships, always entertaining her friends, parents and parents’ friends when they visited.
“I would just sing,” she said. “I always wanted to sing.”
She sang and acted in her elementary school’s theater productions, but it was when her neighbors took her to church at age 12 that she really fell in love with singing, Simmons said.
“That was it. I was like, ‘Oh, this is my home,’ and that’s when I really learned to sing,” Simmons said. “I love the community, I love the people, I love the songs, I like the message.”
That passion for singing continued throughout her life, and this past October, Simmons opened for James Taylor. She previously sang on Oprah Winfrey’s “Trip of a Lifetime” cruise.
“In life, you can be talented,” Simmons said. “But if you don’t have access and opportunity, then it’s really hard.”
Tyrone Sutton, who has worked at the BAA for 17 years and is the current principal, said the BAA Foundation helps fill the gap between what Boston Public Schools fund and the actual cost of operating an arts school, which is more expensive than a regular school given the supplies and production needed.
“The Boston Public School funds about 75 to 80% of our operating budget,” Sutton said. “The foundation fills that additional 25.”
It was at last year’s BAA Foundation Champion’s event where Simmons “really fell in love with the kids.” When the students performed a song by Tina Turner, she felt like she was in New York, she said.
“They already have the talent,” Simmons said. “So if I can help them with the access and opportunity through connections, contacts, recruiting people, donating money, starting a scholarship fund for the school, then that’s what I’m committed to doing.”
Simmons could not attend this year’s Champion’s event because she traveled to Denver to watch her son play on the Yale University men’s basketball team in the NCAA Tournament. Simmons’s sister, Pauletta, came to accept the award on her behalf.
Kadahj Bennett, who graduated from the BAA in 2008 and is currently the school’s chair of the theater department, said Simmons and her husband, Omar , are “very, very generous” and “very aware of the power of an arts education.”
“They know it’s not just teaching young people how to paint or do monologues or know how to tune a guitar,” Bennett said.
[It’s] being able to appreciate the beauty in the world, being able to be innovative about the way that you paint things, being able to be a leader, being able to be empathetic, to know that you can use your art as a vehicle for change.”
