Oprah Winfrey is a powerful cultural force. Starting as a TV personality, she eventually grew her empire to include a TV show, magazine and TV network.
Despite this success, and considerable wealth, she’s always been a generous soul.
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She’s well known for her philanthropy.
With a net worth north of $2.5 billion, it makes sense that she’d give back a little. But she’s gone above and beyond over the years. Just one of her many initiatives raised more than $80 million for charitable projects.
Education is also important to her.
She’s a sought-after collegecommencement speaker. Recently, she surprised grads at Colorado College, wishing them well and sharing some advice at their grad ceremony.
She shared a nice pic of the occasion in this Instagram post .
Those in attendance were thrilled.
Graduating is one of those things you’ll never forget, but can you imagine graduating with Oprah in attendance to give you a hug and a copy of her best-selling book? It would be pretty memorable.
Hmmm.
Amid the well wishes, one commenter pondered whether Oprah, with her considerable wealth, should pay off the debt of the Colorado College grads, rounding off their comment with some snarky emojis.
It didn’t come out of nowhere.
It’s important to recognize that Oprah’s Instagram post came just days after billionaire Robert F. Smith, speaking at a commencement ceremony at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, blew everybody’s minds (seriously, look at the guy in the bottom left) by announcing that he’d pay off their debt.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brought up an interesting idea.
It would definitely be interesting to compare the Morehouse class of 2019 with the classes of 2018 and 2020 and see their overall levels of success and happiness.
Other people had slightly more radical opinions about this issue.
Of course, when you think about it, it is kind of like a hyper-specialized kind of taxing. Maybe assign every billionaire a graduating class a year?
It wouldn’t be out of character for Oprah, either.
Remember this is Oprah “You get a car! You get a car!” Winfrey.
She’s been known to be generous to total strangers, whether it’s through charities or just straight-up hooking them up with new cars.
She’s also founded an all-girls school in South Africa.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has received over $100 million dollars in donations from Oprah. She has also continued to offer guidance and support to the graduates of this school through college and their adult life.
Just this past April, Oprah gifted one graduate from OWLAG a wedding dress.
Oprah also walked this student down the aisle at her wedding. In her Instagram post , she said, “I’ve known these girls since they were 12 and 13 coming to my school. Graduating from college. Grad school. Now our first wedding. Looking for the perfect dress.”
Fans leapt to her defence.
It’s nice to see billionaires to give back, but asking them to fund everyone’s education doesn’t seem like a particularly sustainable system.
Student debt is a real problem, but the solution doesn’t lie in billionaires donating money.
She really has gone above and beyond.
While she might not be paying off student debt of Colorado College students, it isn’t fair to say that Oprah has turned a blind eye to college grads…quite the opposite, in fact.
She brought the receipts.
Not only has she contributed millions of dollars to put students through college, she’s done it at Morehouse College — the same institution whose grads saw their debts covered by Robert F. Smith.
Morehouse is important to Winfrey.
This historically black, all-male private university in Atlanta has served the African-American community for over 150 years. To date, Oprah has donated enough to put 400 young men through school there.
Yep.
I mean, Oprah isn’t providing every college student in America with a free education. That’s beyond anyone’s means. But she’s clearly making a difference for grads, whether it’s through emotional or financial support.
Oprah got emotional on her show when faced with the impact of her generosity.
In the video, the 415 graduates pledged to “pay it forward,” and donated over $300 thousand of their own money to help future Morehouse graduates.
What do you think?
It’s another example of just how generous Oprah Winfrey has been with her money, reinvesting it into the community in meaningful ways. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!