At Horizons, we’re not just talking about young adults—we’re talking with them.
JFF’s Horizons Ambassadors met with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona at Horizons. From left: Anike Akinfolarin, JFF Senior Manager Sumari Barnes, Daniel Dabney, Alexandra Vidal, Denia Smith, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Keymontae Lindsey, Fiona Lu, Zeke Jackson, and Alex Edgar.
At Horizons, we’re not just talking about young adults—we’re talking with them.
Jobs for the Future (JFF) invited 10 young adult learners and workers to our annual Horizons summit in Washington, DC, to ensure that Gen Z voices would be integral to designing solutions to create an equitable future of work. Thanks to support from College Board's BigFuture, the Horizons Ambassadors flew in from across the country and had two days full of opportunities to speak with attendees.
We connected with three ambassadors—Denia Brielle Smith, Ciara Thrower, and Fiona Lu—to learn what’s top of mind. Here’s what they said in conversations that took place in person at Horizons and via email.
JFF: When it comes to education, career development, and employment, what issues matter most to you?
Denia Brielle Smith, 20, a nationally recognized activist and a junior at American University, says young people want more than a job; they’re looking for “purpose-driven” work. And she hopes employers see their unique value.
Smith: We’re not working just to make a paycheck…. We’re committed to doing something that’s going to better our communities. Our generation has grown up amidst unprecedented events—we’re the generation of COVID-19, of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, of mass shootings, climate injustice, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and affirmative action, the list goes on and on. For Gen Z, work must be committed to addressing societal wrongs and building a more equitable future, and we need employers across varied industries to be committed to attaining these goals.
JFF: How would you like to see employers put these ideas into action in a way that makes a difference for your generation?
Smith: We have to acknowledge that there’s this push toward breaking down corporate hierarchies and transitioning toward models that are more reflective of people, that care about people over profit and people over productivity, and that care about our communities…. I think it’s imperative for companies to develop—and proactively commit to—short- and long-term strategic priorities and initiatives centered on social impact. We need employers to fight for our communities and the issues that impact us, whether it’s “trendy” or not. With regard to wellness, we’re seeing some companies, especially in the social impact sector, modify the internal operations of their organization to put wellness first. That’s a really good step.... [such as] the four-day work week. I know that’s been contentious for some folks, but evidence has found that a) it’s doable, and b) it works.
JFF: What is blocking employers from taking these kinds of steps, and what can young people do to drive change?
Smith: Oftentimes, the call for change is met with stagnation, especially with regard to prioritizing wellness and centering social responsibility in organizations. As young people, we need organizations committed to doing this work for the long haul, and that begins with sustainable, incremental changes that invite Gen Z to the table as active contributors, not passive observers. Young people have cried out for years for our voices to be heard, and it’s time that we build intergenerational tables committed to transforming what work looks like.
Ciara Thrower, 25, an Inland Empire regional organizer with California Environmental Voters and a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, says prioritizing sustainability “is our most critical existential issue.”
Thrower: Sustainability impacts everything in our world; it impacts our economy; it impacts our communities. So I think having sustainability be at the center is the way for us to transform our communities and transform our economies and to really make Gen Z feel like the world is working for them.
Sustainability is at the heart of … every single thing, every policy issue … because this earth is dying, and if we want Gen Z to be in the workforce, there needs to be a workforce for Gen Z to be in.
JFF: What concrete steps would you like to see business and government take?
Thrower: Our economy really needs to shift…. We have a very extractive economy…. We’re going to have to rebuild a lot of structures that we’ve been used to, and that’s very scary and daunting. And no one really knows what that’s going to look like. But we really do need to do a 180 if we’re going to have a world that’s sustainable and have a workforce to allow that sustainability.
[We need] to go toward more regenerative forms of the economy and more regeneration in general when it comes to our communities and the way that we approach community growth and community development.
[We also need] more conversations around sustainability in terms of community engagement. So when we are engaging communities … just having this be an aspect of all conversations and all policy issues … [we need] to be a little bit more people-conscious and people-focused.…
I would really love to see more horizontal levels of management structures, not all this top-bottom stuff, [so] we’re really bringing everyone to the table in a meaningful way … so these existential issues around sustainability and the climate crisis can really be addressed holistically and collaboratively.
JFF: To what extent do you see decision-makers incorporating young people's perspectives?
Fiona Lu, 19, a sophomore at UCLA, leads What We All Deserve, a youth-led organization that champions access to basic needs benefits through youth-proposed state policies and intergenerational movement building. Lu is dedicated to making the case that every issue—including but not only education—“is a young people’s issue.”
When I first got involved with policy advocacy from a youth perspective, I was 16 and in high school. [Participating] made sense to me then.… Our education system was built to serve children and young people, and yet they are regularly disenfranchised from choosing their educational leaders and learning experiences.
As my passion for the policymaking process unfolded, so did my curiosity in radical, re-imaginative ways to get young people involved in it. Working with several youth-led organizations, I was able to get deeply immersed with the California lawmaking process, from drafting to pitching to advocating for state bills that worked toward educational equity and inclusion for all students.
Through youth advocacy, I felt assured that what is most important in policymaking is the perspectives from community members that are often overlooked. After all, who else can better tell you what the problems are on the ground and how public processes can work to solve them?
Making a shift in my policy interests, I noticed that outside of the education space, students’ and young people’s voices were even more lacking. It seemed like a constant fight to keep having to justify why every issue, not just education, is a young people’s issue.
There seemed to be a disconnect in realizing that young people hold a stake in all the policy decisions being made today. Ultimately, we will inherit all the consequences of the current day, good or bad, in the future.
Creating this shift in narrative for thoughtful and co-created intergenerational spaces is crucial to a truly inclusive society where we place our younger voices at the forefront of important decisions.
JFF: What would you like policymakers and employers to remember long after Horizons 2024?
Smith: We need a change now. It might seem rash to say [but]… young people want that urgency. And I think that’s what we need from companies and policymakers is to join us. Let’s get on the train and head toward a better future together.
Thank you to our sponsor College Board's BigFuture for supporting the 2024 Horizons Ambassador program. BigFuture is committed to centering student voices to ensure college and career planning resources are relevant and authentic. BigFuture recently partnered with JFF to create a career decision-making guide for educators, counselors, employers, families, and other caring adults to support young people evaluating postsecondary options.