Oprah Winfrey is a name that hardly needs any introduction. The lady is an unbelievably endowed cocktail of success. A media proprietor, resourceful businesswoman, super successful talk show host, actor and producer, and a world renowned philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey is a truly multi-faceted personality. Many regard her as the most influential woman in the world, and the fact that she is always in the news for good reasons does more than underlining the claim.

Winfrey lived a troubled childhood. She was sexually abused several times in her early teenage, and even became pregnant at the age of 14. Her child died in infancy. Her relationship with her mother was always turbulent, and she was sent to her father in Tennessee. It was from here that education acquired importance in her life, as her father Vernon prioritized that. She went on to become an honours student and bagged the tag of the Most Popular Girl in her school. She was also a part of the speech team of East Nashville High School, and grabbed the second national position in dramatic interpretation. Her success in oration led to her being awarded with a full scholarship to the Tennessee State University.
Oprah studied communication at this historically black institution. She had already worked for a local black radio station called WVOL for the senior year of her high school, and continued the job for the first two years she spent at her college. She started with co-anchoring the evening news show at the radio station, and made rapid progress courtesy her emotional delivery style. Oprah Winfreys unmatched and emotionally laden presentation catapulted her to the talk show circuit of the radio channel very soon.

Oprah Winfrey lived a promiscuous life in her high school and college, and also her post college days. After breaking up with her high school love, Oprah went into a relationship with William Taylor at the Tennessee State University. Winfrey even helped Taylor get a job at the radio station she was working at. The relationship is believed to have been a really intense and honest one. However, Oprahs career orientation spelt an end for the relationship in 1976. Communication and media have been a huge part of Oprah Winfreys life, and it can be safely added that the years she spent in her college learning and honing the skills of communication shaped her life.