Oprah gave a group of disadvantaged high-school students in Sydney, Australia the shock of their lives when she organized a surprise visit from their favorite rapper, Jay-Z, on December 15.
Canterbury Boys High School teacher Polly Dunning wrote to the “Oprah Show” to see if she could get her boys to meet Jay. “The boys come from a variety of cultures and nationalities with 90 percent from a non-English-speaking background,” Dunning read her letter out loud to the boys. “Although they are all different, we all love hip hop music, including Jay-Z. Jay-Z has let my students see that you can come from the bottom and reach the top. I would like to show Jay-Z my students at Canterbury Boys. It would mean everything to them and to me and it would make them proud to show our school.”
When Dunning finished reading her letter, out walked Hova, just like that, and Miss Dunning broke down as student chanted, “Jay-Z, Jay-Z, Jay-Z.”
The students gave the rap mogul a tour of their school and showed off their musical skills before he headed to the filming of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” He left the kids with this message, “I just want to say, I’m living proof of the possibilities that anything can happen once you apply yourself and the fact that you guys are here in this school right here serves s an opportunity so you know don’t let that opportunity go to waste.”
It looks like Oprah is helping to make sure the young men at Canterbury Boys get ahead. During a special taping of her show at Sydney Opera House, the talk show queen gave each and every student a new HP DV7 laptop.
We know those boys will keep this experience in their hearts for years to come. Who would you have loved get a surprise from when you were in high school?