Oprah Winfrey Tells Graduates It Took 10+ Years To Get Her College Degree

In a commencement speech for Tennessee State University’s class of 2023, Oprah Winfrey shared that, unlike them, she did not graduate with her college degree when she attended in 1975. 

On May 6, the media mogul explained to the graduating class that she had been one credit shy of qualifying for her diploma when her career in broadcast journalism took off. Winfrey told students that it would be 10 years before she returned to complete her degree, Associated Press reported. 

Winfrey continued the anecdotal tale of how it was her father who pushed her to finish the education she had started at TSU, and over the years,  asked her repeatedly: “‘When you going to get that degree?’” she said.

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It wasn’t until 1988 that Winfrey received her degree from the Nashville-based historical Black college and university, WABE reported. By that time she had become the Oprah Winfrey we all know and love. 

“So I got my degree from Tennessee State, right around the time I got my third Emmy,” Winfrey said.

To date, Winfrey has racked up 19 Emmy awards, 12 NAACP Image Awards and one Tony award. 

After telling the students at her alma mater about her journey to graduation and her God-ordained steps to success, the OWN network creator went on to encourage them to follow their purpose and to listen to the “still, small voice,” that will lead them to a space where they would “begin to know your own heart and figure out what matters most,”

Winfrey inspired the HBCU graduates to do purposeful work with the story of Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson who were both expelled from congress for protesting for tougher gun laws while on the house floor, and the work and passion of Nelson Mandela. 

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