Lancer (Ladies) in Leadership: Three East staff members start their own chapter of Women in Leadership

Sophomore Jordan Fuller sees herself studying shipwrecks in a scuba suit to support her family surrounded by only guys. She wants to be a marine archeologist, a primarily male-dominated profession and knows that she will be one of, if not the only, female in her workplace. Even some of the most obscure fields are male-dominated, with 50% of women in the workforce feeling undervalued, according to HR Dive. 

This is why Shawnee Mission West’s Associate Principal Kelley Capper pitched the idea of a club dedicated to growing the confidence of young women to push past societal pressures four years ago, and the Women in Leadership club will officially be offered at East next school year.

The club aims to empower young women through conferences, book studies, mentorships and speakers. This year Associate Principals Susan Leonard and Emily Demo and Instructional Coach Kelsi Horner are expanding the club to East.

“What we see on TV and in magazines and in society, the societal expectations of young women, ‘Oh to be quiet,’ ‘sit nicely,’ ‘sit like a lady,’ shouldn’t be the norm, but only we can change it,” Capper said. “We have to retake over the narrative, and that’s what this program does.”

Staff members were given an opportunity to expand the program to East when Capper invited them to a Women in Leadership conference on Feb. 16.

East teachers nominated students in their classes they thought would be best suited for the program. These students then filled out a Google Form, and 10 were selected to attend the conference based on their responses. A panel of female leaders — from a hairdresser who owns a trucking company to a civil engineer — came to speak to the group of girls about their careers, obstacles they faced and how to pass them.

Junior Eve Bendit was one of the students that attended the conference. 

“A lot of them talked about how they got into [the field that] they got into and how you don’t necessarily have to commit to what you’re majoring in college,” Benditt said. “They talked about how to talk to a boss about a difference in pay between male coworkers and just a lot about their life stories.”

After getting a glimpse of what the program is like, Benditt is looking forward to assisting with the program next year. She wants to help females at East learn how to take leadership roles both inside and outside of school.

Fuller is also looking forward to helping the program grow. As a confident person herself, she believes it will help young women with confidence to go into whatever profession they choose. She also wants to learn how to work in a male-dominated field.

“Learning how to navigate [working in a male-dominated environment is] really important,” Fuller said. “That really hit home, don’t let the men tell you what you should be.”

The program won’t host meetings for the rest of the year because it’s still in the planning stages. Leonard intends to use the fourth quarter to communicate to students the new opportunity. Next school year, they will start meeting monthly to plan the structure of the program.

“We’re trying to move slow enough to do it right, so our goal in the fourth quarter would just be to publicize that this is gonna be an opportunity,” Leonard said. 

The growth of the program is slow because Leonard hopes to get input from both Capper and club members about what the program should look like.

“It might look just like Shawnee Mission West or it might look different, but I want it to be ours,” Leonard said.

Aside from attending conferences to discuss being a female in the professional world, West’s program also pairs members with mentors — professional women working in the job field that matches the member’s interest.

“I meet with every student to discuss what career field they want their mentor to be in or what they hope to learn from it,” Capper said. “Then they get set up with their mentor. They have online communication or in-person meetings and job shadows.”

Leonard hopes the program will also include book studies, coffee and breakfast meetings and community service. Leonard expects the group to attend some district-wide meetings each year, but otherwise most events will be held within East.

“Women supporting women, women promoting each other but also being encouraged to be leaders in our school or community in the world,” Leonard said.