We Can and We Will

Broomfield High School’s Women’s Leadership group is in the midst of releasing their new podcast: We Can and We Will.

The group—which strives to “develop strong relationships with [their] community members and provide a positive, uplifting environment for everyone around [them],” according to their mission statement—released the first episode of their new show on February 24th and is continuing to release an episode every Wednesday.

Each episode features one or more women who speak to different aspects of Women’s Empowerment. The featured guest speakers range from a cult survivor in one episode to a Colorado State Representative in another. According to Ryann Zechmann (12), one of the group’s student mentors who helps oversee the program, “There’s something for everyone” in the new podcast.

In addition to the various guest speakers, the group is focusing each episode on specific categories represented by their Women’s Leadership hashtags: #WEareBeautiful, #WEareCapable, #WEareRemarkable, #WEareSmart, and #WEareStrong. Zechmann said, “We are definitely more than all five of our hashtags,” but that the title of the show, We Can and We Will, sort of “sums it all up.”

Zechmann encourages people to check out the show and hopes that it “empowers and motivates” its listeners, especially during these unprecedented times.

Several episodes of We Can and We Will are already available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.

Leadership

Like most aspects of pandemic life, the group has had to adapt along with the changing circumstances. In past years, Women’s Leadership focused on creating a conference toward the end of every school year that featured a variety of influential women as guest speakers. However, due to COVID-19, they decided to transpose the traditional elements of their conference into a virtual setting in order to foster leadership opportunities in a social-distance-friendly environment. Then came the idea of their new podcast.

The goal of the program, however, goes beyond the creation of a single conference or podcast, according to Keira Peterson (10), a first-year member of Women’s Leadership. It’s about providing “a space for women to have the resources and the ability to become good leaders,” Peterson said. And, despite the unexpected transition into a primarily-online setting for a large portion of their podcast-making process, she said that the goal of the group is “still being accomplished.”

Emily Ho (11), who is also in her first year in Women’s Leadership, reflected on her own experiences with Women’s Leadership in the unique circumstances of this school year: “Seeing how hard-working everyone is, and how everyone kind of comes together to help each other to create something, has been really cool.”

Ho hopes that “something” the members of the group all came together to create, their podcast, will reach listeners and that members of the community will “be open to hearing our voices.”