After two decades of transforming lives, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) dey look ahead and expand her mission. The one-of-a-kind boarding school for South Africa, wey dem found to empower young women through education at no cost to dem or their families, born from conversations between Oprah and Nelson Mandela.
More than 1,000 students don graduate from the academy since she open her doors for 2007. The vast majority don go on to higher education and build careers as doctors, lawyers, engineers, artists, executives, and entrepreneurs.
“Every corner of the campus was filled with so much love and care and detail,” recalls 2012 graduate Andronica, now a senior engineering lead at Meta. “OWLAG convinced me that preparation, character, and purpose mattered more than where I came from.”
Following the completion of the 2027 academic year, the residential campus go conclude her role as the heart of the program and be returned to South Africa’s Gauteng Department of Education, as envisioned in the original partnership agreement. Current students still go complete their education with uninterrupted support – academic, financial, or otherwise – while the department go carry forward the school’s legacy.
Though the boarding school itself go transition to be run by the local department of education, this no be the end of OWLAG’s mission. Oprah say, “[The dream] continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education. I’m excited that this next chapter will allow us to reach even more young women across South Africa and continue the promise that began more than 20 years ago.”
That promise already dey evident for the lives of OWLAG graduates. As alumna-turned-CEO Kirsten say, “If you change one woman’s life, she’ll go on to change her children’s lives, her community’s lives. And that will have a ripple effect.” For OWLAG, the next chapter just dey begin.
