Jada Pinkett Smith Opens Her Heart ... and Checkbook

It's no secret that I totally heart Will Smith. I love his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, just as much. She just donated $1 million to the high school that she graduated from, which is the largest donation received from a graduate of the performing arts school.

The Baltimore School for the Arts announced the donation for a renovation and expansion, and they planned to name its new theater after her. Instead, Jada, 35, asked that it be dedicated to late rapper Tupac Shakur, who was a classmate of hers.

The money comes from the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, and is not the first donation they have given to the school.

"It means a lot when you're a teacher and your most famous alumnus comes back to give a donation," said Donald Hicken, head of the school's theater department and Jada's former theater teacher. "It really says a lot to the community that the school matters in people's lives." It was Hicken who approached Smith about making the donation.

Karen Banfield Evans, executive director of the Smith Family Foundation, and Pinkett Smith's aunt, said that Jada has been particularly moved by the progress the school has made since she graduated in 1989.

"She credits the School for the Arts for really giving her her start and was impressed by the things they've been doing and the way they've grown. When they came up with this (expansion campaign) and all they're doing, she felt like this is what she needed to do."

The school is already undergoing a $30 million dollar renovation that will be finished next year, adding two dance studios, two science laboratories, four classrooms, a lecture hall, six theater practice rooms, two theater rehearsal rooms, a scene shop and the 90-seat theater.

Photo from CNN.