From left: Anne van Zul, head of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls; Oprah Winfrey; and Joy Moore, deputy head of the school, which is in South Africa. Photograph: Courtesy of Joy Moore

Joy Haywood Moore ’81 is deputy head of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley-on-Klip, South Africa, and a longtime champion of girls’ education. She was the featured speaker at the 12th Annual Lynch School of Education Symposium, which was held in the Murray Room, Yawkey Center, on November 10. A graduate of the Lynch School who received an honorary doctorate from the University in 2010, Moore directed both the Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles and Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Mass., her alma mater, before joining the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in 2008. This is an excerpt from her talk.

The prospect of a bright future is out of reach for many of South Africa’s children, especially the “girl child.” The country’s economic growth has not been able to tame unemployment, which is estimated at 25 percent. Daunting problems from the apartheid era—especially poverty and the lack of economic empowerment among South Africans from previously disadvantaged backgrounds—remain. Government schools, the equivalent of our public schools in America, grapple with extraordinary challenges including not only poor quality of education, high attrition rates, and low teacher morale, but the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS, crumbling infrastructure, and inadequate water and sanitation. In a place where there is no such thing as a school lunch program, many, many students from poor families go to school hungry.

And it is, of course, of great concern that girls and young women continue to report high levels of sexual abuse, harassment, exploitation, and even murder in their schools.

The preamble to the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 highlights the need for a new national system of education that will provide “an education of progressively high quality for all learners and in so doing lay a strong foundation for the development of all our people’s talents and capabilities, advance the democratic transformation of society, combat racism and sexism and all other forms of unfair discrimination and intolerance, [and] contribute to the eradication of poverty and the economic well-being of society.”

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) recognizes that many historically disadvantaged South Africans, particularly girls from impoverished communities, will continue to endure educational, social, and economic injustices, prejudices, and intolerance if they are not provided with opportunities to develop competencies to counter these challenges and to take on leadership roles in South Africa’s transformation into a prosperous, democratic society.

The academy supports the development of a new generation of women leaders who, by virtue of their education and service, will lead the charge to transform themselves, their communities, and the larger world around them. OWLAG is rooted in the principles of Ubuntu, an ancient African philosophy that holds that all people are part of a single human family and emphasizes humanity, compassion, and service to others.

Throughout their years at the academy, students are able to harness their leadership skills to serve and inspire those around them. Their self-confidence is balanced by compassion, their assertiveness by a sense of responsibility to others.

Above all, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls strives to educate future leaders who are able to navigate a variety of social and cultural contexts and who will remain committed to the development of South Africa and the African continent.

As a student who graduated in the class of 2011 wrote, “Being at OWLAG has certainly equipped me for the years ahead. I came here as a little girl who only knew that she would like to change the world someday. I now stand as a young woman who has an idea of what I would like to change and a slight idea of how to go about doing it. I am a work in progress. I have great expectations for myself. I plan to do great things for my people and the world at large. It is because of OWLAG that I live by the principals of Ubuntu. I honor those around me; respect who they are and where they come from.”