Oprah Winfrey Donates $1M To Denver Tech School

Online, September 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - U.S. media mogul Oprah Winfrey has donated $1 million apiece to six charter schools, saying their "leaders are doing whatever it takes," to improve education.

One of the grants announced Monday on Winfrey's syndicate TV show went to the Denver School of Science & Technology, which has 500 students on a waiting list to get in, and plans to open three new campuses by 2020, The Denver Post reported Tuesday. Lockheed Martin announced in May it would donate $1 million to help fund the expansion plan, the Denver Business Journal reported.

DSST, founded in 2004 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Hewlett-Packard, focuses on preparing sixth- through 12th-graders for further education in science and technology, the Business Journal said. Forty-five percent of its students are economically disadvantaged, 64 percent are Hispanic or black and 41 percent of last year's graduating class were first-generation college students, the newspaper said.

Winfrey's Angel Network is making the grants to DSST as well as to schools in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Texas.
DENVER,(UPI)