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Oprah looking for tips
17/11/2003 11:09 - (SA)
Chicago - Television talk show host Oprah Winfrey visited an all-girls charter school on the city's south side, combing for ideas for a similar academy set to open in South Africa.
Walking out of a physics class at the Young Women's Leadership Charter School, she noted that the school in Johannesburg will need two science labs.
"This school is getting more expensive by the hour," she said of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, South Africa.
Winfrey has committed $10 million to build a public boarding school for girls outside Johannesburg by 2006, but the total cost may be $20 million to $30 million, said Dianne Hudson, president of the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, who is co-ordinating the effort.
Plans for the academy have grown from "a nice boarding school for girls" to "a world-class boarding school for girls," Hudson said.
Jaws dropped as Winfrey walked into classrooms on Friday and some of the kids almost swooned.
One eighth-grade fan, Deborah Bell, 15, was so excited when Winfrey shook her hand that she hugged the TV star in return, then broke into tears.
"I love her. She's smart. She's successful. She is wonderful," Deborah said later.
Although Winfrey came to the school looking for inspiration, she gave that and more to students and faculty. She encouraged a group of seniors to follow their dreams and on her way out the door, she gave the school's founder a $250 000 check.
- AP
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South Africa
