We all Want to Change the World

Surrounded by butterflies, nine women celebrated their graduation from the Feminist Leadership Academy (FLA) as the class of 2009, naming themselves “The (r)Evolutionaries.” The ceremony was held on June 12 at The Moye Spiritual Center in Melbourne, KY.


When Mary Pierce Brosmer envisioned the 2009 Feminist Leadership Academy, she created a new model with sessions that would meet for long weekends at the Women Writing for (a) Change center in Silverton, culminating with a week-long session in June. The new model evolved from previous FLA sessions in 2004, 2006 and 2008, both to accommodate women’s work and home schedules, and to address a challenging economy. The class created its own online system to stay in touch between sessions and to share weekly writing assignments.

As part of a multi-disciplinary approach, the class studied the unlikely life cycle of the life of and across generations of Monarch butterflies. After watching a PBS Nova episode about these amazing creatures, the class actually created containers for caterpillars to cocoon and eventually emerge as Painted Lady butterflies.

The leadership training included a rigorous reading list; participation in group processes using the WWfaC community practices; a regular writing practice as a way of learning, healing and manifesting; and a practicum which each participant designed and carried out between March and May.

Some of the practicum projects included: creating, marketing and holding a young women’s class; holding writing circles in a retirement home; adapting the WWfaC process to a circle of creating art; holding writing circles for social workers; contacting former students and enacting a social marketing plan for the Cincinnati school. Many of these projects will be carried on long after graduation and promise to have a long lasting impact on both Women Writing for (a) Change and the larger community.

Graduates include two women from WWfaC’s Bloomington, IN, school: Amy Cornell and Kim Evans. Jodi Dolbeare-Shakin traveled from Morton Grove, IL. The Cincinnati area students included Donna Maile, Katie Hall, Marian Leibold and Beth Fritsch. Northern KY students were Katherine Meyer and Suellen Hugan.