Alumni Spotlight

From Vienna College to Big Brother: Stella Nantumbwe’s Journey of Bold Reinvention

Actress, hotelier and former Miss Uganda. (Class of 2009)

At a quiet table in one of the upscale hotels she manages, Stella Nantumbwe leans in, her voice as composed as her career is sprawling. She's been Miss Uganda, a reality television star, a film actress, and now a hotelier and budding filmmaker. But ask her who she is, and she starts at the beginning: “I was part of the group that moved to Vienna College after Kabojja closed.”

That transition, from one elite school to another, was more than a change of address. It was the first in a series of bold, often strategic, reinventions that would shape her life and career.

“Honestly, it was the worst at first,” Nantumbwe, recalled with a laugh. “The only thing I liked were the skirts.”

Her group from Kabojja, as she tells it, carried their old identity into a new environment, creating an invisible divide. “It was like Kabojja inside Vienna. But over time, we blended. We had to.”

Those early days of culture clash and campus politics left an imprint. “Vienna taught me strategy,” she said. “Everything from how you relate to teachers, to getting your food first at the canteen it was all about understanding systems and making them work for you.”

That mindset, honed in school corridors, proved essential on a national stage. After university, Nantumbwe entered the Miss Uganda pageant not just as a contestant, but as a tactician. “I knew what the crown could do,” she said. “It wasn’t about vanity it was about positioning.”

The win catapulted her to continental visibility as Uganda’s representative on Big Brother Africa, where her mix of grace and groundedness won fans across the region. But she wasn’t chasing celebrity.

“I don’t like doing the same thing for too long,” she said. “I get bored. So I keep reinventing.”

Today, Nantumbwe manages two properties Royal Suites Hotel and Kalanoga Resort and is slowly stepping behind the camera to direct and produce. She describes herself as a “multi-hyphenate,” a term popular in creative circles to describe those who straddle industries and roles.

Yet behind the poise is a defining moment she often returns to: a student strike at Vienna College that turned chaotic. The administration had confiscated students’ electronics in a surprise raid. Anger simmered, and when weekend entertainment was canceled for a second time, it boiled over.

“The police came. They tear-gassed us. The boys were beaten and locked in the dining hall. The girls were confined to the dormitories,” she said.

Then something unexpected happened.

“Mr. Kakiika, our favorite teacher, stood in front of us and cried. He said, ‘You children have disappointed me.’ And I’ll never forget that,” she said. “That moment realigned everything for me. I never wanted to be the source of someone’s heartbreak like that again.”

From then on, Stella committed not just to rules, but to purpose. “That’s when I started attaching meaning to my choices,” she said. “I wanted my actions to reflect integrity.”

Her advice to today’s students is simple but resonant. “It’s okay not to know. Don’t rush to grow up. Be moldable. Ask questions. Push yourself. Because one small decision can change your entire path.”

Nantumbwe admits motherhood and the demands of adulthood have created distance between her and her old friends. “We were the Cheetah Girls,” she said, smiling at the memory. “But life pulls people in different directions.”

She still occasionally sees messages from fellow Vienna College alumni in her social media comments, cheering her on. “They expected me to do pageants,” she said. “I’d already done it at school.”

As the Vienna College alumni community begins to organize more intentionally, with events like its inaugural dinner, Stella is hopeful but candid.

“We’re late to the game,” she said. “Other schools have strong alumni bodies. We should be sending kids to school, fundraising for hospital wings.

 “We have so much potential. If we decide to fundraise for a hospital wing, a school, a library whatever we can do it. We’re engineers, creatives, doctors and so on. We have the talent. We just need to work together.”

Asked how she’d like to be remembered by her peers, she doesn’t hesitate.

“Daring,” she said. “I’ve never let anyone put me in a box. I try things. I fail sometimes. But I try. That’s what excites me what’s next.”

As the conversation wraps, she stands with the ease of someone at home in many worlds pageants and politics, film sets and boardrooms. Reinvention, for Stella Nantumbwe, isn’t a phase. It’s the point.