Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

This article contains too many or too-lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by editing it to take facts from excessively quoted material and rewrite them as sourced original prose. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote. (June 2011)

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls - South Africa is a girls-only boarding school that officially opened in January 2007 in Henley on Klip near Meyerton, south of Johannesburg, South AfricaCoordinates: 26°32′49″S 28°03′19″E / 26.54694°S 28.05528°E / -26.54694; 28.05528. It was founded by Oprah Winfrey to provide educational and leadership opportunities for academically gifted girls from impoverished backgrounds in South Africa.^[1] The current headmistress is Mrs Anne Van Zyl who has been at the academy since 2010.

Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

Criticisms and controversies

At 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.^[2] 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.^[3] Winfrey responded by saying,

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.^[4]

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, sneakers, or some money. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.^[3]

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.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[6]

Other criticisms that Winfrey received about the Leadership Academy included the racial makeup of students, with the majority of students selected and accepted as candidates for the school being black. 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.^[7] Many of girls chosen for the Leadership Academy come from families affected by HIV/AIDS.^[8]

In spite of the criticism, Winfrey's offered that 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."^[9] 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.'^[10] '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.'"^[11]

Visiting rules controversy

In March 2007, some parents complained because they were only allowed to visit their children once a month and the girls were only allowed to use their cell phones on weekends.^[12]

John Samuels, the executive head of the school responded to the complaints;

We have the security and well-being of the girls at heart, in every respect. They are our priority. If there's too much movement on the premises at the weekend, it disturbs the school spirit.

Alleged physical and sexual abuse

In October 2007, a female school staffer was accused of physically and sexually abusing students. Winfrey flew to South Africa to meet with school officials and parents on 12 October. Winfrey was quoted as saying:

Nothing is more serious or devastating to me than an allegation of misconduct by an adult against any girl at the academy,

According to the Afrikaans-language newspaper Rapport, the "dorm matron" allegedly grabbed a student by the throat and threw her against a wall. The unidentified woman is also alleged to have screamed at and assaulted her wards, as well as fondled at least one girl. The staffer has been put on probation pending an investigation.^[13]

On 1 November 2007, Police Superintendent Lunge Dlamini announced that the 27 year old dorm matron had been arrested after seven students submitted statements alleging assault and various abuse at the hands of the employee.^[14]

Dlamini stated;

Several charges including alleged assault, indecent assault, criminal injury and soliciting underage girls to perform indecent acts are being investigated against her

Winfrey reportedly provided each girl with a cell phone programmed with her personal phone number. In a statement she said;

It is my deepest hope that the accused is brought to justice and that this serves as a reminder that any time a child has the courage to step forward, it is our duty as adults to listen and take immediate action.

The Times, a Johannesburg newspaper, said the incident was unsurprising given that South Africa has some of the highest rates of child rape in the world, and praised Winfrey for dealing aggressively with the problem.^[15]

Merlene Davis of the Lexington-Herald Leader also praised Winfrey’s response to the crisis:

But I so admire how Winfrey handled the mess after she heard about it. She pulled no punches, revealed all the ugliness and promised the parents of those girls to do a much better job… The good coming out of this, however, is that those girls, who all have come from extreme poverty, have some idea of what a powerful woman looks like and what she stands for. So do those who no longer work at the academy.^[16]

Rachel Jewkes, a specialist on sexual violence with South Africa's Medical Research Council, praised Winfrey’s response as "phenomenal", because it sent such a powerful message in a country afflicted with record high levels of sexual abuse:

I think the message that is sent by this, that [sexual abuse] is utterly unacceptable, is a really powerful one. We never get a message that's so unequivocal about how these acts should be judged. Wouldn't it be wonderful if these acts would always be taken so seriously?^[17]

On 23 March 2010, the Associated Press reported that Winfrey settled the defamation lawsuit filed by one of the headmistresses at the Academy before the trial began.^[18]

Praise

There have also been reports of praise for the school. According to Masechaba Hine, whose daughter and granddaughter both attend the school, her children "have no problems about the school, they are happy about everything."^[19] Nelson Mandela, who attended the opening ceremony, said, "the school is important because it will change the trajectory of these girls' lives and it will brighten the future of all women in South Africa. Oprah understands that in Africa, women and girls have often been doubly disadvantaged. They have had the curse of low expectations and unequal opportunities."^[20] Bill Clinton used the academy in his book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World as an example of how to give back to the world.^[21]

See also

• List of boarding schools
• Young Women's Leadership Charter School of Chicago

References

External links

• "Educate a Woman, You Educate a Nation" - South Africa Aims to Improve its Education for Girls WNN - Women News Network. 28 August 2007. Lys Anzia
• Press release: Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela and South Africa's Ministry of Education break ground for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls – South Africa. (6 December 2002). The Oprah Winfrey Foundation. Retrieved 14 January 2007.
• Sakoana, T. (21 August 2006). Oprah's African dream realised. International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC). Retrieved 10 January 2007.