At the commencement ceremony held on Sunday, June 16 at Stanford Stadium, hundreds of students were honoured, including Bongeka Zuma, a former student of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa.
Zuma received his medical degree from Stanford on Sunday. The following day, Winfrey recognised her achievements.
Oprah Winfrey is commemorating a graduation that is “extra special.”
At the commencement ceremony held on Sunday, June 16 at Stanford Stadium, hundreds of students were honoured, including Bongeka Zuma, a former student of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa.Zuma received his medical degree from Stanford on Sunday. The following day, Winfrey recognised her achievements.Seeing her cross that stage was one of the greatest pleasures of my existence! Knowing her roots, which are in a small KwaZulu-Natal town, and how firmly she believed in her dream of becoming a doctor, Winfrey said in the Instagram picture’s title. The post featured a slideshow of images and videos from the momentous day.According to Today, Zuma was a member of Winfrey’s inaugural graduating class from her boarding school, which launched in 2007. At the time, just 152 out of over 3,000 applications were accepted.According to Winfrey’s article, Zuma first received a summa cum laude degree from Spelman College in Georgia before going on to Oxford University in England to acquire a master’s degree.
Get the best of PEOPLE, from celebrity news to gripping human interest stories, sent straight to your inbox by subscribing to their free daily newsletter.Noting that this particular graduation “was extra special,” Winfrey stated she had attended 22 separate graduations “for all my daughter-girls who came from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy.”The philanthropist added, “She never gave up, and we all celebrated her achievement with great pride, along with a support team of good friends, fellow OWLAG sisters, and professors.” Best wishes, Dr. Zuma. Excellent work! Excellent work!
Winfrey stated in a 2019 interview with PEOPLE that she founded her boarding school with the intention of “building a school for girls who are like me.” The girls that attended the school, according to her, “are my greatest, deepest joy.”The former talk show host said at the time, “They’re the daughters I did not have.” “I never considered myself to have a maternal instinct. I enjoy cuddling with babies, but only in the “Hey baby, okay, now go over there” sense.”I like children when they can actually speak to me and tell what the problem is,” she continued. This is how I was meant to experience becoming a parent.
