Rising Stars Youth Leadership Program is a five-month leadership development program for high school students designed to train leaders and to inspire youth involvement in the Japanese American community. It all began with the Building Community Through Leadership (BCL) program organized by the Nikkei Federation and conducted by Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) in 2003. BCL drew thir
teen representatives from Southern California’s Nikkei organizations, including staff and volunteers from Japanese American community centers, Little Tokyo Service Center and the Japanese American National Museum. As part of the program, the representatives participated in a series of leadership workshops and also worked on one of two group projects. Half of the representatives worked on determining the needs of the Japanese American community so that the community’s infrastructure could be strengthened, and the other half worked on developing a leadership training program for youth. A common refrain heard from the representatives throughout the BCL program was “I wish I had learned this when I was younger.”
Though the group projects were meant to be learning exercises for the representatives, by the end of the BCL program, the representatives felt so strongly about the need for future leaders for the Japanese American community, that they decided to implement the leadership program for youth. Six months later and with a grant of $5,000 from The Rafu Shimpo Foundation, the first Rising Stars Youth Leadership Program was born.
