Kelly Rowland Reveals Son Titan, 9, ‘Loves Back to School’ and Is ‘Excited About Sports’ (Exclusive)

Kelly Rowland is sharing a glimpse into back to school life for her son Titan. 

The Mea Culpa star, 43, shared at the Baby2Baby volunteer session in New York City in support of its new initiative to combat the maternal health crisis, that unlike most kids, her 9-year-old son was looking forward to getting back to classes this month.  

“He loves back to school,” Rowland tells PEOPLE on Tuesday, Sept. 10. “I mean, thank God. He started a new school last year, and we had a goddess of a teacher. I'm so grateful to her.” 

“And now he's excited about sports,” she adds. “He sees all his other buddies there. He's happy. And so that makes me really excited for him, but he seems to love it. So far.”

As for his back to school gear, the actress and singer shares that he’ll be reusing some of the “same stuff he had last year” — including bigger items like his backpack. Though, she noted her husband, Tim Weatherspoon, would change that if he could.

“Like, ‘that backpack is just fine, you're going to use that one right there.’ You know?” Rowland recalls telling her son. “His dad is like, ‘I want to get him a new backpack.’ I was like, ‘Why? He's got the backpack? He's fine.’ You know?” 

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The musician says Titan “used the same backpack from last year” and has had “the same backpack from when he was little.” She went on to explain that their family wanted to make sure that the items were not going to waste. 

“Look, it’s just stuff you're going to put in there. It's not like you need anything new,” she shares. “And if we have excess around the house, we like to make sure we're able to give that away too.”

Rowland also explains to PEOPLE why it's so important for her to support Baby2Baby's initiative as a mother of color who watched "a friend of mine go through something where I could have almost lost her."

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"I was too close, and because I was too close, I realized I have to speak too loud. Like I always have to speak too loud about this, and we should all speak too loud about it," she urges. "Doesn't matter if you're black or white or whatever. We should be speaking up for our sisters, because that's who we are as women."

As a national non-profit organization that provides children living in poverty with diapers, formula, clothing, and other basic necessities, Rowland gushes over Baby2Baby in her event speech.

"While we can't solve the maternal mortality crisis on our own here today," she says, "this initiative is one important piece of a very complicated and necessary solution to improve mother's mental health, a leading cause of maternal mortality, by providing the basic essentials they absolutely need during the most critical time — after childbirth."

She specifically want to tell PEOPLE readers, "that they can get involved, that they too can help, that they too can be a part of this change that's within the nation with Baby2Baby. That they can be a part of changing children's lives and being able to provide basic, essential needs, and just bringing joy."

"I encourage you to give, if you can, when you can give," she adds.