Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

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The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls is a girls-only boarding school that officially opened in January 2007 at Henley-on-Klip in Meyerton, south of Johannesburg, South Africa. Inspired by her own humble beginnings and disadvantaged background, Oprah Winfrey founded the Leadership Academy to provide educational and leadership opportunities for academically gifted girls from impoverished backgrounds in South Africa who exhibited leadership qualities for making a difference in the world.[1]

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[edit] Establishing the Leadership Academy

Oprah Winfrey created the school after Nelson Mandela asked her to lend support for educational causes in post-Apartheid South Africa. To realize the vision of the Leadership Academy, Winfrey donated $40 million to establish an educational facility for academically talented young women with leadership qualities who grew up in poverty. To carry forth this vision, Winfrey became involved in the overseeing many details of building the Leadership Academy and managing the administrative details, from selecting students and faculty to designing the buildings and interiors.[2]

The 52-acre, 28-building campus of the Leadership Academy features state-of-the-art facilities, including large dormitories, wellness center, gymnasium, dining hall and libraries , with many of the rooms having large fireplaces. The Leadership Academy plans to offer students an academic curriculum based on national educational standards in South Africa that includes teachings in the English, Zulu and South Sotho languages and the subjects of arts and culture, life orientation and leadership, various topics in mathematics, natural sciences and technology, social studies, economic and management sciences.[3] The first two classes of the Academy will include 152 girls of ages 11-12, selected from 3,500 nationwide applicants in South Africa. Although the incoming classes of girls will enter grades 7 and 8, the Leadership Academy plans to provide middle school and high school education for girls in grades 7 through 12.[4][5] To qualify as a candidate for the Leadership Academy, the potential student must show that she is academically qualified, and that her family must have a household income no greater than $787 a month.[6]

[edit] Criticisms

Surrounding the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Leadership Academy, Winfrey received much criticism surrounding the "extravagance" of the school, with mention, among other things, about the need for high thread-count sheets for the dormitory beds, a beauty salon, two theaters (one indoor, one outdoor) and a yoga classroom to educate girls in an impoverished region of South Africa.[7] In an article about the school's unveiling, Allison Samuels of Newsweek questioned whether the $40 million spent might have benefited a far greater number of students had the money been spent with less emphasis on luxurious surroundings and more emphasis on practicality.[8]

Winfrey defended her decision to establish the Leadership Academy in South Africa by offering the following observation:

I think the reason not just Africa but the world is in the state that it is is because of a lack of leadership on all levels of government ... and particularly in regard to schools and schooling for poor children. ... The best way to effect change long term is to ... give children exposure and opportunity and nurture them to understand their own power and possibility.[9]

She also continued by offering her view of the difference between the United States and South Africa in terms of their educational systems and the outlooks of children in those systems:

Say what you will about the American educational system — it does work. ... If you are a child in the United States, you can get an education. ... I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there. ... If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.[8]

Rebecca Traister of Salon.com argued that the criticism Winfrey received for daring to build a private school in Africa was predictable:

Winfrey might have known that news of her students' swank surroundings might not wash with American critics, who don't bat an eye at white hotel heiresses dancing on banquettes, or reality shows about sweet-16 parties at budgets that could build a home for a Katrina victim. But impoverished black girls sleeping on nice-ish sheets? That didn't go over so well. The affronted sense that these girls deserved only bare-minimum accommodations and that a private citizen's money should have been used to educating them in bulk rather than in gracious individual style reflects our own beliefs that the bare minimum is all poor (black) girls need.[10]

Karen Russell of The Huffington Post also came to Winfrey’s defense:

Critics say the school is too lavish for such an impoverished country. How dare Oprah have the audacity to spoil these Black African girls?! Why are so many quick to question if these girls deserve the best education Oprah's money has to offer? ... Oprah will get a lot of bang for her buck by educating poor Black girls in Africa. She realizes that educating South African girls must be a priority to help turn the tide in sub-Saharan Africa…where an education is quite rare, and birth rates for uneducated girls are so high, a little education could make a dramatic difference.[11]

Russell then cited the success of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first female President who restored Liberia’s electricity, as an example of what can happen when the best and brightest girls in Africa are given a world class education. She praised Winfrey for sending the message that blacks and women have value by building a world class school for girls in sub-Saharan Africa.[11]

Other criticisms that Winfrey received about the Leadership Academy included the racial makeup of students, with the majority of blacks students selected and accepted as candidates for the school. Winfrey deflected this criticism by saying that the "school is open to all girls who are disadvantaged. All girls, all races, who are disadvantaged ... [including] White, Indian and Native American students of varying faiths," as long as eligibility requirements were met.[12] Many of girls chosen for the Leadership Academy come from families affected by HIV and AIDS.[2]

In spite of the criticism, Winfrey's offered that the her vision for the Leadership Academy was to provide a vehicle for mentoring academically talented and disadvantaged girls with "that 'It' quality" to provide them with opportunities to "change the face of a nation," make a difference in the world and to become future leaders of South Africa. As for rationale of the lavishness of the school, Winfrey continued by saying that "[i]f you are surrounded by beautiful things and wonderful teachers who inspire you, that beauty brings out the beauty in you."[13] To change how women are viewed, Winfrey added during an interview, one must look for an opportunity "'to change the paradigm, to change the way not only these girls think ... but to also change the way a culture feels about what women can do.'[14] 'Girls who are educated are less likely to get HIV/AIDS and in this country which has such a pandemic, we have to begin to change the pandemic.'"[15]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Reaching out: South African school for girls born out of Oprah's need to "feel" a connection. (2007, January 2). The Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Jacobson, C. (2007, January 3). Thank you, "Mam Oprah." The Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  3. ^ Lebohang, N. (2007, January 3). Oprah’s supreme moment of destiny. The Sunday Times (South Africa). Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  4. ^ Jacobson, C. (2007, January 2). Oprah Winfrey opens school in South Africa., The Washington Post. Retrieved January 2, 2007
  5. ^ About the Foundation and the Academy. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  6. ^ Nullis, C. (2007, January 7). Oprah gets HIV test, hopes students will. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  7. ^ McGregor, S. (2007, January 2). Oprah opens academy for poor girls in South Africa. Newsweek. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  8. ^ a b Samuels, A. (2007, January 8). Oprah goes to school. Newsweek. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
  9. ^ Winfrey Says She Wants to Nurture Kids. (2007, January 3). The Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
  10. ^ Traister, R. (2007, January 13). What Oprah can't forget. Salon.com. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
  11. ^ a b Russell, K. (2007, January 4). War on Oprah. The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
  12. ^ CNN transcript (Jeff Koinanage, CNN Africa correspondent reporting). (2007, January 2). CNN. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
  13. ^ Oprah's school for girls opens in S. Africa: Plus, TV mogul answers critics who would rather see her help poor students in U.S. (2007, January 3). EURweb. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  14. ^ Oprah wants to change view of women in Africa: Talk show host opens school for girls in effort to change the culture. MSNBC. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
  15. ^ Usborne, D. (2007, January 3). Oprah wants to change view of women in Africa: Oprah's £20m school proves she's not all talk. The Independent (UK). Retrieved January 10, 2007.

[edit] External links

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