<P> She began attending Lincoln High School, Milwaukee; but after early success in the Upward Bound program, was transferred to the affluent suburban Nicolet High School, where she says her poverty was constantly rubbed in her face as she rode the bus to school with fellow African - Americans, some of whom were servants of her classmates' families . She began to steal money from her mother in an effort to keep up with her free - spending peers, to lie to and argue with her mother, and to go out with older boys . </P> <P> Her frustrated mother once again sent her to live with Vernon in Nashville, Tennessee, although this time she did not take her back . Vernon was strict but encouraging, and made her education a priority . Winfrey became an honors student, was voted Most Popular Girl, and joined her high school speech team at East Nashville High School, placing second in the nation in dramatic interpretation . </P> <P> She won an oratory contest, which secured her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black institution, where she studied communication . Her first job as a teenager was working at a local grocery store . At the age of 17, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant . She also attracted the attention of the local black radio station, WVOL, which hired her to do the news part - time . She worked there during her senior year of high school, and again while in her first two years of college . </P> <P> Winfrey's career choice in media would not have surprised her grandmother, who once said that ever since Winfrey could talk, she was on stage . As a child, she played games interviewing her corncob doll and the crows on the fence of her family's property . Winfrey later acknowledged her grandmother's influence, saying it was Hattie Mae who had encouraged her to speak in public and "gave me a positive sense of myself". </P>

When did oprah begin her career in broadcasting