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US talk show host Oprah Winfrey visited the South African school, Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, the school she set up in 2007 near Johannesburg last Saturday, paying tribute to the first 72 students who graduated. Several students even achieved strong enough grades to obtain scholarships to the best US universities. The school cost Winfrey 40 million US dollars of her own money when it was set up in 2007, to help girls who have the potential and willingness to succeed. "One of the reasons that the school has worked so magnificently as it has, is that we already had a standard of girls who at their previous schools, indicated that she was not only willing to learn but also had the discipline for leadership required to be in the school here." For one graduate, Mashadi Kekana, the support and pressure of expectation heaped on the young girls' shoulders helped them strive to succeed. "One of the things that I have noticed about OWLAG (Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls) girls is that pressure makes us thrive," "As human beings everybody reaches a point where they ask themselves 'am I good enough?', and thanks to Mum Oprah and the support team we have at the school, the answer to that question....is 'yes, I am good enough'," "Regardless of the pressure I'm going far, and I'm doing this because I want to, and I have goals that I want to reach, and I will. So pressure fuels us to thrive." The sleekly designed 52-acre campus encompasses state of the art classrooms and laboratories equipped with flat screen computers, a yoga studio, beauty salon and well-stocked library, and offers the girls a standard of education that would have been out of their reach before. The school accepts girl students from families that earn less than 60,000 rand, 8,663 US dollars annually and tuition and board is free at the residential school. Students who show strong leadership qualities in the interview will be admitted to enter the school.Winfrey says the idea for the school was inspired by her own humble beginnings, and she wants to give disadvantaged girls the opportunity to have the best start in life. The South African government has been criticized for neglecting public schools particularly in poor and rural areas where classrooms are often overcrowded and inadequately funded.High levels of classroom violence, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse exacerbate the poor standard of education. Even though authorities seek to waive school fees for some of the poorest South Africans, many believe that the legacy of apartheid-era laws remain a disadvantage for underprivileged black students. ◆ 追蹤更多華視影音及圖文新聞：
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