Licensing

Rising Stars Program History

The Rising Stars Youth Leadership Program was founded in November 2003 and was developed as a result of LEAP's (Leadership Education for Asian Pacific) Building Community Through Leadership (BCL) program. Fourteen representatives from various community organizations throughout Southern California participated in this five month leadership development program. The BCL program was sponsored by the Nikkei Federation

One element of the BCL program required the participants to form into two project groups to address two needs/issues facing the community - developing infrastructure for the Nikkei Federation and more youth involvement in the community. Eight participants worked on the Nikkei Federation infrastructure project and six worked on the youth involvement/youth leadership development project.

Upon graduating from BCL in May 2003, the two project teams banded together to form a planning committee to transform the concept for Rising Stars into reality. After six long months of biweekly meetings at Oiwake Restaurant in Little Tokyo (Downtown LA), the pilot Rising Stars program was launched.