Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey's career began in 1957. At age three, she was speaking in church, by her teens she was touring the churches of Nashville, reciting the sermons of James Weldon Johnson. Other children sang, Oprah talked. And she's still talking, but to much larger audiences. The path that led from her grandmother's farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi to becoming the first African-American woman billionaire is a story of an amazing women with focus and unrelenting determination.

Taught to read by her grandmother at an age when most children are only learning to talk, Oprah became a voracious read. Oprah says books became her outlet to the world and the basis of her passionate belief in education. An actress of uncommon talent, her first feature film, The Color Purple, brought her an Oscar nomination. Her rise from reading the news on a small radio station to being the first woman in history to own and produce her own television talk show illustrate the strong force that is Oprah winfrey

Oprah then formed a public charity in 1998, Oprah's Angel Network. This charity was established to encourage people around the world to make a difference in the lives of others. Oprah's vision is to inspire individuals to create opportunities that help underserved people rise to their own potential. Oprah's Angel Network supports charitable projects and provides grants to non-profit organizations across the globe that share in this vision. Oprah's Angel Network is currently involved in building rural schools in 10 different countries (China, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone and Tanzania). Thirty-four schools have been built through Kids Can Free the Children, providing education for thousands of children in remote areas of the world.