Oprah Surprises the Inaugural Class of Oprah Winfrey Leadership Scholars
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Earlier this year, the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation announced a new four-year scholarship program dedicated to high-achieving students. In August, the 15 scholarship recipients—incoming freshmen and sophomores in colleges around the country—gathered over Zoom to meet one another.
To their surprise, Oprah also dropped by to greet the new scholarship recipients. "Welcome to our new network of Oprah Winfrey Scholars. I'm thrilled that there are young people like you in the world. You are claiming your stake in the future and have done the work to prepare for a better life for yourself and everybody else," she told the students, many of whom were sitting with their parents and caretakers. "You are the future. You are the ones we’ve been waiting for."
Oprah was part of the team that hand-selected the scholarship recipients. "I've read all your stories. It's an honor to get to know you, and to see all the great work that you're going to do in the world," she said, adding that she was moved to tears by many of the applications.
As well as being a four-year scholarship, the OWLS program was designed to create a network between students as they obtain their bachelors degrees and beyond. Together, they'll have access to speakers and leaders in various fields that reflect the inaugural class's diverse ambitions.
The OWLS program continues Oprah's philanthropy in the realm of education. In 1989, Oprah established the Oprah Winfrey Endowed Scholarship Fund at Morehouse University, which has funded the education of over 600 students.
The group of 15 includes an aspiring structural engineer, neonatologist, social justice lawyer, film director, and more. In the fall, the students will head to colleges and universities around the country, including Columbia, New York University (NYU), U.C. Berkeley, Rice University, Harvard, Cornell, Howard University, Purdue University, UCLA, Tennessee State University, Loyola Marymount University, University of Alabama, Washington University and Charles Drew University.
On the call, Oprah urged the scholarship recipients to "claim this moment," and reflect on the effort that got them into that Zoom room. “The fact that you’re here means you’ve been preparing for a long time," she said. Sometimes, she acknowledged, their commitment to school may have even been isolating. "You were willing to be the stand out even though other people didn’t understand what you were standing for," she said.
Oprah emphasized it was hard work, not luck, that got them here—and to remember their worthiness as they head off to college. “This didn’t happen to you because you were lucky. You earned it. Everybody's here because you prepared for this moment, which is my definition of luck. You've had people helping you get to this place, but you had to do the work," she said.
"Everybody's here because you prepared for this moment, which is my definition of luck."
She also gave a special shoutout to the students' parents and caretakers. “Everybody has had somebody that has shown them this is possible,” she said. For Oprah, those influential people were her teachers. "They showed me that there was a way out of my life that was surrounded by difficulties and challenges and being surrounded by poverty," she said.
At the end of the call, Oprah imparted some wisdom for the next four years of their college life. In short, she said, they should find genuine friends—advice that applies to all of us, whether we're headed to college in the fall or not.
"As you move to this new phase, surround yourself with people who are going to lift you up and bring you light. You'll get into situations where people are not happy for your success. You want to be surrounded by people who are as happy for your success as you are. That's what a real friend is. A real friend is there to help you attain the fullest expression of yourself," she said.
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