The Rising Stars Mentoring Program is a young woman’s empowerment initiative that inspires and equips them with leadership, employment, vocational, entrepreneurship, and social and life skills. Our goal is to economically and socially empower young women in secondary schools in Uganda by strengthening their ability to become active players in transforming their lives and enabling them to transition from school to work and adulthood successfully. Equipping young women with 21st-century skills ignites their cognitive skills, critical thinking, innovation and interdependence, communication, creativity, leadership, financial literacy, and information technology which are crucial necessities for success in the global economy.

Experiential learning builds young women’s self-confidence, increases economic opportunities, and creates supportive systems and platforms for self-expression. The program enhances young women’s potential to excel in life and work through proper career planning and skills development, connecting them to actual work experience while still at school. The relevance of learning at the secondary level is essential, given that this is the level from which many youths enter the labour force. Parents, community leaders, and teachers are trained as support mentors to integrate the skills into the existing lifestyle, structures, and activities. Launched by United States Ambassador Jerry Lanier in 2011, the project has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation since 2014.