Award-winning talk show host Oprah Winfrey is set to receive an honorary degree from Skidmore College at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York on May 20. According to the official college website, the "Honorary Doctorate of Letters in the Arts Degree" is to acknowledge Winfrey's distinguished career in television and media.
CBS 6 Albany enumerates that Winfrey is best known for her award-winning talk show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show." She is also the founder of "O", "The Oprah Magazine", and is currently the Chairman and CEO of her own cable network, the "Oprah Winfrey Network" (OWN).
The honorary degree Winfrey is set to receive also aims to recognize the 63-year-old tv host's numerous philanthropic works. Among her achievements is creating a vision, leadership and commitment to education through the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) in South Africa.
The Chicago Sun Times reports that "The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy", is actually a boarding school for underprivileged South African girls, opened outside Johannesburg in 2007. Several graduates of the school have attended Skidmore.
It is hence befitting, that Winfrey is likewise scheduled to speak at Skidmore College's 106th Commencement Exercises. Among the 2017 class is one of her OWLAG graduates, who will receive a Skidmore degree.
Apart from Winfrey, Skidmore College also announced there are two other recipients of the degree. One is Ann Tisch, founder, and president of the Young Women's Leadership Network (YWLN). She will be honored for providing underserved girls with access to all-girls' public education since 1996 by creating the The Young Women's Leadership Schools.
The third honoree is Wes Moore, who is a combat veteran, youth advocate, entrepreneur, best-selling author and founder of BridgeEdU. BridgeEdU is a unique first-year college program that combines core academic courses, internships and service experiences with coaching to help students succeed in academics and life.
"We are honored to have three extremely passionate and exemplary advocates for education speaking at our Commencement ceremony this spring," said Skidmore President Philip A. Glotzbach. "We believe the unified messages shared by Ms. Winfrey, Ms. Tisch, and Mr. Moore will be a powerful reinforcement of our commitment to providing broad access to an outstanding liberal arts educational experience," he added.
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