On the 11th of September, 2025, two students of Luigi Giussani High School scooped prizes in a national essay competition organised by Step-up Limited and the National Renewable Energy Platform (NREP). Tokwiny Benjamin and Aaron Jesse Achon were announced second and first runner-up up respectively, in an award ceremony that was held at Silver Spring Hotel, Bugolobi.

This essay competition seeks to create a new generation that is aware of clean, renewable energy sources and is more conscious in choosing the right source to use, especially for cooking. The competition has been running for three years. The two previous competitions were organised by Step-up, and were both won by a Luigi Giussani High School Student – Lia Rogers. This year, he was second runner-up in the youth (post-secondary) category. This year, Step-up partnered with NREP to organise the competitions. They also expanded the number of activities to compete in. Apart from the essay, students from all over Uganda could participate in the cooking and skit competitions. Luigi Giussani High School also had two teams that participated in the cooking and skit competitions.

The call often comes out early in the second term and ends late August. It brings together learners and educators from various secondary schools to engage with experts on the future of renewable energy in the country. There is a lot of learning and exposure our learners get during these engagements. As winners in the competition, the school was invited to attend the National Renewable Energy Conference of 2025. Tokwiny and Achon got cash prizes of 150,000/= and 500,000/= respectively.

We congratulate all our learners who participated in the competitions. We will always encourage our learners to take up such opportunities because they give them the chance to apply the knowledge they get in school in real life, and learn things beyond the classroom.