What more can we ever say when it comes to Oprah Wimphrey, just when you think that she couldn’t possibly top her own success, she does something that just puts another notch on her belt of success.

Oprah has officially put the final stamp of approval on her Academy for Girls, in South Africa, this groundbreaking work that is just the beginning for something that has remained with Oprah all throughout her life. The importance of education is obvious when you follow Oprah’s career, she has always put education at the forefront. With her book club, featuring good reads, and putting excellent writers in her show… She shows how one person can truly change the world.

Oprah has chosen South Africa as the birthplace of this intensely personal work because “it is the country of new beginnings, only 12 years out of Apartheid, and also because of my deep love for Nelson Mandela and all that he means to this country and to the world.”

In 2002 she announced the plans for a leadership school and to donate $10 million… That $10 million has grown to 40 million..

One hour south of Johannesburg, past the old gold mines to a sleepy village called Henley-on-Klip, the academy sits on a 52-acre site suggested by the Department of Education

These young faces exude hope, possibility, promise. “Yesterday I asked an 11-year-old, ‘Why do you want to come to this school?’ and she said, ‘It is my tomorrow!’ They are already wonderful. They are my dream girls.”

It’s always exciting to see the wonder of Oprah and how she can bring her dreams to life… I too, believe that education is key in improving your life, in reaching for your dreams… As Oprah says, it was her education that made her feel that she wasn’t oppressed and that she wasn’t chained to the stigma of being a female, or even being black…

This is what inspiration can do.

What lessons does Oprah want these girls to know for sure when they walk through the doors of her academy into the world? Her answer leaps from her own experience. She wants them to know that they are not defined by their circumstances. “What I learned at a very early age was that I was responsible for my life. And as I became more spiritually conscious, I learned that we all are responsible for ourselves, that you create your own reality by the way you think and therefore act. You cannot blame apartheid, your parents, your circumstances, because you are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.”

“The school will teach girls to be the best human beings they can ever be; it will train them to become decision-makers and leaders; it will be a model school for the rest of the world.” — Oprah

You can go to www.oprahwinfreyleadershipacademy.org to see this inspirational endeavor in action.

Note:pictures and quotations from oprah.com