Mary grew up in Mombasa, Kenya. Her mother inspired her to study diligently and Mary earned a place at Starehe Girls Centre and School. In 2006 Mary was one of the first girls to join the Global Give Back Circle. Because of her gift for choral poetry and public speaking, Mary was chosen to represent the Global Give Back Circle and was on stage with President Clinton in the 2009 opening plenary session of CGI in New York. Mary left CGI with a full four-year scholarship to the American University of Dubai (AUD).

Mary developed an interest in women education, health and specifically reproductive health. With this, she and other beneficiaries of the Global Give Back Circle started a website to educate girls about critical health information and exchange peer to peer knowledge. She is also in the Global Implementation team as a Partnership Manager as well as a beneficiary of the Global Give Back Circle.

In November 2011, Mary spent ten days in Haiti facilitating a knowledge transfer for an organization that mentors at-risk youth (Haitian Education and Leadership Program).

In April 2012, Mary was the first African and only the second woman to be elected President of the
Student Government at AUD. She maintains an honors GPA.

In November 2012, Mary was chosen to be a voice for youth by Microsoft who covered her story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQEiwY3JyvU

In May 2013 Mary graduated from the American
University in Dubai where she received three
distinguished honors one of them being ‘The student
leadership award’ which made her one of the most
accomplished student of the year.

In May 2013 she was one of 100 young leaders (out of
6,000 applicants) selected to receive a full scholarship to attend the Women Deliver Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
She was also a featured speaker at the event and the only youth to participate in the official Press Conference.
http://new.livestream.com/WomenDeliver/conference2013/videos/20110271?origin=Digest&mixpanel
_id=a38180527ea54-091859ec6-43681f0a-2ee000-a38180527fc6b&acc_id=4158757&medium=email
She recently attended the Women in Public Service Institute (a program created by Hillary Clinton) at
Bryn Mawr, on a full scholarship where she received a certificate: Peace-building and development this
July...https://wpsp.blogs.brynmawr.edu/2013/07/10/delegate-interview-mary-mwende/

http://womeninpublicservice.wilsoncenter.org/2013/06/28/hillary-rodham-clinton-to-address-
emerging-women-leaders-at-women-in-public-service-project-institute-at-bryn-mawr-college/Mary just got selected as one of Microsoft’s YouthSpark Advisors on use of ICT. This year she was invited as a speaker to the Clinton Global Initiative. http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Kenyan-youth-joins-
Microsoft-advisory-team-on-use-of-ICT/-/1248928/2062992/-/jy5sggz/-/index.html