She opened an academy for impoverished girls in South Africa

Winfrey created the Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa in 2007 after being inspired by her own underprivileged beginnings. The boarding school, which is spread out across 22 acres, began with 150 students and eventually grew to 450. Winfrey is said to have invested $40 million in the school's construction. It began with the goal of providing educational and leadership opportunities for academically brilliant girls from underprivileged homes in South Africa who had leadership abilities and the desire to make a difference in the world.

The Leadership Academy for Girls has cutting-edge classrooms, computer and science labs, a library, an auditorium/gymnasium, an amphitheater, sports fields, modern dorms, and a dining hall. The school's graduation rate has remained at 100 percent, with a high majority of these young women going on to college, many of them in the United States. Nelson Mandela, who lauded Winfrey for overcoming her own disadvantaged upbringing to become a benefactor for others and for investing in the future of South Africa, has been one of the academy's most prominent supporters. Bill Clinton also recognized the Academy when he included it as an example of how to give back to the world in his book "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World."