Oprah Winfrey to speak at upstate NY college commencement

Oprah Winfrey will be a speaker at the graduation ceremony for an upstate New York college that some graduates of her South African school attended. (Photo: Oprah Winfrey/Facebook)

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.—Oprah Winfrey will be a speaker at the graduation ceremony for an upstate New York college that some graduates of her South African school attended.

The Skidmore College website says the author, actress and former talk show host will be a speaker at the May 20 commencement at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Winfrey will receive an honorary Doctorate of Letters in the Arts from the private liberal arts college located in Saratoga Springs, 165 miles north of New York City.

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, a boarding school for underprivileged South African girls, opened outside Johannesburg in 2007. Several graduates of the school have attended Skidmore.

Winfrey was at Skidmore in October 2013 to visit two of her South African school’s graduates.