Opportunity to Lead

As a young professional myself, I am encouraged about the recent increase in awareness and conversation about the importance of identifying and supporting young leaders in Wichita. If you picked up a copy of Sunday’s Wichita Eagle, you probably noticed an editorial by the Chamber’s director of community advancement, Suzy Finn. Suzy is also the executive director of Young Professionals of Wichita (YPW), a Chamber affiliate that has been identifying and supporting young leaders in our community for 10+ years. Suzy Finn I would encourage you to read Suzy’s editorial, in which she names several YPs who have filled important leadership roles, and then ask yourself: “What are you doing to mentor, encourage and include the young leaders in Wichita?” YPW Chair Sam Foreman also shared his thoughts in an inspiring blog post titled “Wichita Rising: The Opportunity Capital.” Sam’s love for our city and commitment to making it a place where opportunity abounds shines through his words, making it easy to see why the post has an organic reach of 4,200 people on Facebook. A snippet from the post is below and I hope you can take a few minutes to read it in its entirety: Sam Foreman “One hundred years ago, the Legends of Wichita built Cessna and Stearman dreams, rocketing Wichita from cowtown to rivets and steel to world leader in advanced manufacturing. And each major innovation and success along the way has been built by creating opportunities through jobs, products and services created by Wichita dreamers. Community-wide efforts make the distance from Dream to Done shorter every day, but there is still a lot of work left to be done. The Opportunity Capital is rising to the challenge. Will you?” Barry Schwan This year, one of the Chamber’s strategic priorities is to “make diversity and inclusion a greater focus for talent retention and attraction” and our 2016 Chairman Barry Schwan has not been shy in stating that is one of his top priorities. You see his thoughts in these editorials in the Wichita Business Journal and the Wichita Eagle. It’s for these reasons and more that I’m proud to be a part of an organization that places value on young talent and I’m proud to be a YP in Wichita. Courtney Sendall Communications Manager, Wichita Metro Chamber