OPRAH WINFREY

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born January 29, 1954 on her family’s farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her father, Vermon Winfrey, a stationed solider at a local base, and her mother, Vernita Lee, were both very young when Oprah was born. Her parents never married, and so after her mother found a job as a maid, she was left to the care of her grandmother Hattie Mae Lee. As a young child, Oprah would recite in church each Sunday, which is what she believes kick started her performing career. Hattie Mae taught Oprah how to read at the young age of three, and as soon as she started kindergarten she was promoted to the first grade and then right away to the third. At the age of nine when Oprah was sent to live with her mother, she was sexually abused by four different men until she was fourteen. This is when her behavior changed and her mother sent her to live with her father in Nashville.

While living with her father and stepmother, she was given strict orders to study every night, and if she hadn’t completed her studies, she wouldn’t be fed at night. Luckily, Oprah has great study habits and was always ready and willing to learn. In high school, Oprah took many public speaking and performing arts classes because she knew that more than anything; she was destined to be a performer. Her last year of high school had a great effect on her because this is when she was introduced to, then president, Richard Nixon, and also the radio station WVOL. The radio station gave her a job as the news girl, and so she would read the news each day on the air. She entered a public speaking contest in which she won and was awarded a scholarship to Tennessee State University where she studied Speech Communications and the Performing Arts. In 1972, along with her scholastic studies and her job, she also entered a beauty pageant, in which she won and was named Miss Black Tennessee.

At the age of nineteen, Oprah was offered a job as a reporter, but was fired after just three years because she wasn’t able to give her own opinion on the air. Afterwards though, her boss told her about a talk show called “People Are Talking”. After her first episode, she was hooked! She stayed with the show for seven years and then moved on to “A.M. Chicago”. The name didn’t last long, and shortly after working there Oprah changed the name to “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. In 1988 she was the youngest recipient of the broadcaster of the year, and eventually her new show would win her 7 daytime Emmys for an Outstanding Talk Show and 7 more for being an Outstanding Talk Show Host (people.smu.edu).

In 1998 Oprah created the public charity Oprah’s Angel Network, which she created to encourage viewers to make a difference in other people’s lives. Since the beginning of her charity she was raised over $50 million, with “100% of audience donations going to non-profit organizations across the globe” (oprah.com). Oprah’s Angel Network has given out scholarships and helped to support women’s shelters and youth centers, in hopes to change the future for people all over the world.

Oprah’s commitment to helping children and because of her own terrible childhood between the ages of nine and fourteen, she created the National Child Protection Act in 1991. Oprah testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to try and establish a national record of convicted child abusers, so that people all over the country would know if the person next door to them has been convicted previously and would take a little more caution letting their children out to play in the evenings. On December 20, 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the national “Oprah Bill” into the United States law.

With all this fame came great fortune for Ms. Winfrey as well. Shortly after her show became a huge success and she became the third woman in history to own her own major studio (HARPO), she was named the first black billionaire in the United States. When asked about her wealth and if it has changed her as a person, Oprah jokingly replied, "Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn't changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I'm just wearing better shoes" (quotes.com). Oprah was also opened her own private charity, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, which she has already awarded hundreds of grants to organizations that support education for women and children all around the world.

One of the most well known acts of charity that Oprah has done is creating the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation. She has contributed over $40 million towards the creation of her new school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, in South Africa, which recently opened in January of 2007. This campus has 28 buildings, each of which will help poor girls in South Africa receive an education which was otherwise impossible. Currently, the school is housing 152 girls in the 7th and 8th grade. Oprah says that by the year 2011 there will be a total of 450 girls in grades 7 to 12. Her main vision for the school is to try and increase leadership in women living in South America.

Although this school has brightened the lives of many young girls in South Africa, many people in the United States are quite upset with Oprah. One Newsweek blogger goes far enough to say that Oprah is just “turning them [the girls] into perfect little consumers” because by giving them each walk-in closets they are learning to be spoiled, not educated. Another blogger states that such “ludicrous opulence” will never help these girls get ahead in life; just spoil them for a few years (diversityinc.com). Like the well educated and learned person that Oprah is, she knew that some people would disagree with her building the school in South Africa when so many people here in the U.S. can’t afford a decent education. In an interview with USA Today, when asked about all the negative criticism, Oprah simply replied, “You want to give the gift to the person who's going to love it the most." (diversityinc.com). she went on to say that no young girl in the U.S. will be denied an education because we have a great public school system, but there, no one will be there to help these young girls succeed academically in life.

Even though the opening of her school may have turned a few heads away from her, in a recent poll, people were asked “When entrepreneur do you admire most”, and the winner by a long shot was Oprah Winfrey. Her votes nearly doubled the votes of Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world. Even though she has made a great deal of money and has become one of the most powerful people in the world, she still has a sense of “humility and compassion we all should strive to achieve” (entrepreneurs.about.com). Vanity Fair magazine agrees that Oprah is the most influential person of our time, stating that “[Oprah] has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope” (wikipedia.org). Columnist Maureen Dowd agrees that Oprah is the “top alpha female” right now is our country. She even goes on to say that Oprah may even have “more credibility than the president” (wikipedia.org).

I am not connected to Oprah, physically or in any other way, but I am connected to her story; her story inspires me to want to help others. Oprah Winfrey’s life story and all the acts of kindness that she has performed should be an inspiration to everyone because she has worked very hard for her success but she has never forgotten where she came from. That should be a lesson to everyone, and I know personally, that whenever I can, even though I don’t make much money, I still try and give to the less fortunate. Whether it is giving money, or canned foods or even old clothes, I always try to help. Oprah has inspired me to help and I hope that my project can inspire my classmate, if only even a few of them, so try and help as well.