Oprah's Leadership School in Africa

Oprah Winfrey has founded a new all-girl leadership academy in South Africa. On a TV interview I recently saw, Oprah said that this was the fulfillment of a promise that she made to Nelson Mandela and that accomplishing this is what she feels she was put on earth to do. Fulfilling this project has cost $40 million so far.

This past August, Oprah Winfrey personally selected all of the 73 girls aged 11-12 , who came to be interviewed, to attend her new school. More children from other parts of South Africa will be chosen later this year.

Lisa Halliday, a spokeswoman for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation, said that in the first year the aim is to admit 150 students and that ultimately there will be places for 450 girls in grades 7-12. South African education authorities donated the site south of Johannesburg, and believe it will be a positive thing for South Africa. Local education department spokesman Lusufi Banyaza said: "We used to have private schools denying access to the poor on cost grounds. Now girls will be able to get access to quality private education."

A select number of girls, that is. In the TV segment I was watching, Oprah said her only criteria was that the girls have good grades and come from poor families. My knee-jerk reaction to that was “well, what about a girl who excelled in language class but was doing average in math and science, would she even have a shot?” Someone else might have wondered why it's all girls but Oprah made it fairly clear that she somehow identifies with these girls in terms of how it was for her in school.