People Who Build Schools: It Takes an Oprah
Says talk-show host and humanitarian Oprah Winfrey, “I wanted this to be a place of honor for girls who have never been treated with kindness.” Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko-Reuters/Landov.
Nothing is skimpy or done on the cheap — not when it's the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. Oprah guarantees that. It's not her public image or her brand that Oprah is concerned with here, she emphasizes: It's the developing self-images of the students themselves. Here's the school's timeline.
2000: While visiting with Nelson Mandela, Oprah pledges $10 million to build a school for girls in AIDS-torn South Africa.
2002: Ground is broken for the Leadership Academy. It starts as a public-private partnership of Oprah and the Gauteng provincial department of education. It will offer educational opportunity and a future of wide possibility to girls with limited means and little available family support.
2006: In August, Oprah takes on all financing of the by-now $40-million school and personally interviews finalists to pick the 152 incoming students, who are 11 and 12 years old. A grade will be added to the school every year for the next few years. Oprah also chooses the school uniforms.
2007: Criticized by some as too lavish, the school, which is harder to get into than Harvard, means to give students education plus life skills. A beauty salon on campus is important, the founder says, so the girls will have self-confidence.
Opening day, January 2, 2007: Mandela thanks Oprah for “the personal effort and time. It is not a distant donation,” he says, but a commitment “very close to your heart.” Oprah declares the school her life work and will build herself a house on the 52-acre campus outside Johannesburg so that she can continue her hands-on involvement.
About the Author
Mollie Ann Smith often writes about education for national publications.
This article originally appeared in NRTA Live & Learn, Winter 2007.
