Women’s Leadership Program Des Moines Trip 2021

By: Morgan Roberts

The current group for the Connie Wimer Women’s Leadership program were able to visit Des Moines and physically meet with Connie, a successful business woman in the publishing department, alongside her dear friend and the Head of Economic Development of Iowa, Debi Durham. 

This is a two-year program where the first year is learning about leadership and Women leaders in the community, while second year members take the role as mentors for the first years. 

The 2020 Des Moines trip was cancelled because of Covid, so this trip was the first for the group of young women as a whole. 

The trip consisted of lunch with Connie and Debi as they were able to give their life stories and successes and failures in their careers. They wanted to inspire this group of women through action; there is no better way to, than with their own life experiences. 

After the meal, the group then took a trip to Connie’s publishing company “Business Record” located downtown Des Moines where they were given a tour of the building and its story as to how it became one of the largest publishing houses in the state today. 

Both Connie and Debi left the group with a few inspiring words. 

Connie stressed “Feminism is believing in equality. Having the same opportunities and rights as they’re born to happiness (and to be paid the same).” 

Along with that, Debi added “Women need to be better to women. There’s a lot of shaming right now and we need to make sure we are there for our fellow sisters.” 

Connie left the group with a list of what she believes is essential for a woman to be successful in the world today, through her own life experiences: 

1. Integrity, love, and respect for yourself. Go to bed being happy about you 
2. Be the hardest worker
3. Surround yourself with smart people, both socially and professionally
4. Be an optimist
5. Learn to be a risk taker
6. Learn to love negotiating
7. Become and agent of change
8. Accept failure as another way of learning. If we take risks, mistakes are bound to happen. Just don’t repeat them 
9. Make sure you are a feminist