The Warriors, Rakuten 'Future Leaders Experience' empowers young women entering the workforce

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Warriors and Rakuten have celebrated their annual mentorship event known as the "Future Leaders Experience."

This March marks 6 years of the program, and it's all to empower the next generation of women entering the workforce.

"This is our opportunity to bring young women from Girls Inc. together with mentors both from the Rakuten and the Warriors organizations," expressed Yoyo Murphy, the Senior VP of Government and Community Relations for the Warriors/Chase Center.

The 2-day experience includes professional development opportunities, a shopping experience, and job shadowing. In addition, program participants are afforded various networking opportunities from speaking with a panel of powerful women leaders to meeting fellow young women embarking on career journeys.

"Socializing with our mentors, our mentees, we're getting to know each other, and it's just a really fun and useful experience," described Mia Sanchez, a mentee from the Girls Inc. of Alameda organization.

Participants are in high school from sophomore to senior year. Throughout the experience, mentors guide mentees through an exploration of various future career paths.

"It couldn't have come at a better time to meet and mentor the future leaders and kind of show them that there's jobs both in media, tech, sports entertainment," shared Cara Straus a mentor and Associate Manager of Creator Experience & Events at Rakuten. "There's a wide world of possibilities that they can do upon graduation."

Straus added, "Going off to college can be kind of daunting...but reassuring the students that there are so many opportunities and that if they just put their best foot forward that they're going to succeed no matter what."

At the end of this year's program, the mentees received special parting gifts, including a work bag, iPad mini, and more.

"One tip that I learned is to be confident in myself and to push myself in different situations and when it comes to different people," said Sanchez.

"A big part of our DNA at the Warriors is what we do in the community and off the court," said Murphy. "This is something we've been very invested in even when we were back in Oakland and certainly now that we're here in San Francisco, our reach has really expanded to serve the entire Bay Area."

For more information, follow @warriors, @rakuten, and @girlsinc.ac on Instagram.