Oprah Winfrey is closing the boarding school she founded in South Africa nearly two decades ago, announcing this week that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will end operations in its current form at the close of 2027 as she shifts toward a broader scholarship programme instead.
The tuition-free academy, founded by Winfrey in partnership with former South African president Nelson Mandela, opened in 2007 to provide a world-class education to academically talented girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, and has graduated more than 1,000 students since.
Under the transition, the residential campus will close at the end of the 2027 school year and be handed back to South Africa’s Gauteng Department of Education, which will continue running it as a public school, in line with the academy’s original partnership agreement.
The school will graduate two further classes of students before the shift, with remaining pupils able to complete their education at other top-tier schools, their tuition fully covered by Winfrey through graduation.
Explaining the decision in a statement, Winfrey said: “The dream was never simply to build a school. It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women.”
She added that her mission “doesn’t end with one campus. It continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education.”
In place of the academy, Winfrey will launch an expanded scholarship programme aimed at reaching young women more broadly across South Africa.
A representative for Winfrey said the new model is expected to roughly double the number of girls able to access education through her support compared with the single-campus approach.
Winfrey, 72, built the $40 million, 22-building campus after growing frustrated by the state of under-resourced schools she had visited in disadvantaged communities, determined to create a setting where talented girls could thrive regardless of their financial circumstances.
