Blog

Stars Mentor, Jaylene Bonson, has been working for Stars Foundation since 2015, when it was first established in the Northern Territory. She has always been proud to work for Stars and says that this year has been her proudest yet.

“I’ve always been proud of working for Stars but watching these young women graduate Year 12 this year would have to be the proudest I have ever felt. I could not hold back the tears at their graduation.

 

This year had to be the most meaningful for me as a Mentor. For the past two years I’ve been working in the senior school, where I had the privilege of mentoring the same group of girls for two years and then watched eighteen of them graduate Year 12.

 

Some of these young ladies I mentored when I first started at Stars at Sanderson Middle School. So, I was with them throughout their middle and senior schooling. I watched them as nervous young girls coming into middle school from primary school, and then flourish into amazing young women at senior school.

 

Some of them never had completing Year 12 in their sights; some faced obstacles outside of school that no young person should ever face; some had everyone doubting them; and some were the very first in the families even to attempt Year 12.

 

To say I was proud watching them hand in their very last assessments and go on to graduate is a massive understatement.

 

I’m so happy that in my new role in the Transitions Team, I will get to continue working with these fantastic young women as they enter their next stage of life after school.”