Hang on, America, these creative youth are racing toward a new future

There’s a positive change movement gaining momentum across the USA today, and its standard bearers are teens eager and unafraid to think more creatively than any previous generation to bring about that change.

Call them Gen Z, Post Millennial, iGen or whatever descriptor you choose, but be sure to fasten your seatbelt America, because it’s going to be a wild ride with them in charge. Under their watch, the definition of the stereotypical youth we hear so much about will soon be out of date.

These teens are design-thinkers with an entrepreneurial spirit. This fall, they have already jumped confidently into extracurricular challenges in their own communities in five major cities. They have applied a unique technique called design thinking to develop projects to help improve health/wellness, the environment, transportation, the economy and other essentials of our quality of life.

Thousands of people all over America are voting for the best and brightest of them now by visiting https://adcapyouth.wishpond.com/social-innovation/

Teams of these new world-changers have competed in San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, Philadelphia and New York City, and 10 have earned the right to vie for local and regional support in the national online vote concluding in December in which one student will emerge the nation’s new standout leader of design thinking.

It’s all happening in a program called the Social Innovation Series sponsored by global enterprise application software leader SAP and the GENYOUth Foundation. The aspiring student entrepreneurs have designed, developed and pitched their transformative health/wellness and other quality of life projects to a panel of judges in fiercely competitive settings. The first-round winners have earned cash awards along the way. And the top prize? A week at Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco, all expenses paid. Now, that’s incentive!

The Social Innovation Series invests in would-be student entrepreneurs who are fostering change through a concept called design thinking in their local schools and communities. In the process, we have embarked on a nationwide effort to identify students with passion for their ideas for social good, to help them become entrepreneurs and change-makers in their own communities.

Design thinking, simply put, is a process for creating new and innovative ideas for solving problems that is being embraced by adult entrepreneurs – so why not Gen Z, which holds the future of the planet in its hands? Business people know, and these energetic, confident youth are now learning, that design thinking can be one of the most effective approaches for resolving issues that require deep understanding of root causes and varying perspectives.

The teens who competed in the multi-city challenges know the design-thinking process features open and, at times, divergent thinking (no wrong ideas!) to embrace ambiguities and alternative paths. It also requires teamwork, genuine empathy for others’ points of view, the inevitability of failing along the way, and – with luck — an “a-ha moment.”

Research shows that nearly 80 percent of would-be entrepreneurs in the United States are between the ages of 18 and 34. In fact, almost 70 percent of the teenagers interviewed in a poll by Junior Achievement wanted to become entrepreneurs, even though they knew that it would not be an easy path. In spite of this overwhelming interest, however, youth rarely receive any information about entrepreneurship as a career option. That needs to change.

Positive outcomes of entrepreneurial educational efforts include:

• Improved academic performance
• Increased problem-solving abilities
• Improved interpersonal relationships
• Job readiness
• Enhanced social psychological development
• Perceived improved health status

I invite students, educators, parents, and potential partners to learn more at www.AdCapYOUth.org. Join with us in cultivating and rewarding the youthful entrepreneurial spirit that will change America and the world. We’ve discovered it is a powerful engine for solving some of the most pressing problems with which we are grappling in our schools, communities, our nation and our world.  

This post was updated at 10:47 a.m. on Nov. 17.