 Hi, I'm Kristen Soltis Anderson partner and co-founder of echelon insights And I'm so excited today to be able to present to you the findings of a really exciting research project I've had the opportunity to work on in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation We wanted to understand what Millennials and Generation Z think about opportunity success and the American dream and the results of our research I think tell us a pretty optimistic story about where the next generation is going to lead America You can understand why many people might think that the next generation is going to be worse off The world in which they have grown up has been a very turbulent one over just the last year alone We've had headlines of a pandemic economic collapse changes with the supreme court over the last few decades We've had wars economic collapses in the year 2008 school shootings A number of things that might lead you to believe that the world we're leaving to the next generation is not as good as the world we will first give it And when you ask people in surveys if they think the next generation will be better or worse off Most Americans say worse off. They don't think that things are headed in the right direction But in our research, we find that young Americans have a slightly different view of their own prospects Even in the midst of a global pandemic Millennials and Generation Z we find are picking a slightly different view In our research, we surveyed 2000 members of the millennial generation and 2000 members of Generation Z Which roughly looks at those between the ages of 13 and 40 years old here in the u.s We followed this up with some in-depth interviews of over 100 participants to gain a deeper insight into their views The why behind the results that they gave us We found was a lot of optimism in general only 13 percent of Millennials and Gen Z Say that they think they're likely to be worse off than their parents were And in particular young people of color seeing the most optimistic about their prospects versus those of the past generation While young white Americans only 42 percent say they expect to be better off than their parents That goes all the way up to 59 percent for young black Americans Assign that young people do believe that progress is being made When we ask young Americans how they view their own generation What might make them different from those who came before or those who are coming after We got some really interesting results about the words that Millennials and Gen Z use to describe themselves Which gives us some clues as to why these generations do feel more prepared to tackle the future For Millennials the words they tend to use are things like resilient persistent entrepreneurs We have one quote from a participant named Elena who talks about being the adaptable generation Essentially that Millennials have confronted a lot of challenges as they've grown up And they've always had to adapt and rise to the occasion to find ways to be very practical And to adapt to the world that they're given Generation Z takes a slightly different view They're newer on the scene their teenagers or those in their early 20s And they view what makes them distinct is their voice that they view themselves as conscious Innovative outscoken very comfortable using technology to make their voice heard And so in some ways rather than trying to keep their heads down and adapt to the problems that are in front of them They use their voices to call out for change to try to organize to bring about a brighter new future for themselves Now it doesn't mean just because we're finding all this optimism in the survey that there aren't big hurdles that Millennials and Generation Z face Even though many of them believe that they're going to be better off in the future That the american dream is accessible to them It doesn't mean that they think that there's nothing standing in their way In our survey we find four in ten young people think that higher education is going to be too expensive or hard for them to access Similarly 40 percent think that not having access to health care is an extremely or very big problem standing in their way Education is a huge piece of this puzzle and many say that they feel they haven't been taught the most important life skills And that that's going to be an extremely or very big problem that prevents them from accessing opportunity And certain things like racial inequality are of particular note to young people of color Six in ten black Millennials and Gen Zers that we spoke to said they view racial inequality As something that is an extremely or very big problem standing in their way But nonetheless we still find that two-thirds of Millennials and Generation Zers believe that they will achieve the American dream Which then raises the question. How are they defining the American dream? We wanted to ask this in our research and what we found were a number of people posting pictures when we said Give us an image that reminds you of what the American dream is Someone posts a picture black and white white picket fence and they'd say it reminds me of what I would see in textbooks as a kid But I think the American dream has changed since this image But nowadays most Millennials and Gen Zers do not view the American dream as Husband and wife white picket fence car two and a half kids. Maybe a dog Instead they're viewing things a little bit differently that version of the American dream is history for them Instead they talk a lot more about opportunity that the American dream is about the ability to have the opportunity to build the life that you want I don't think I envision the American dream in the stereotypical light of white picket fence four person family financial success type of way I think I view it as America's serving as an opportunity for people to live their lives It's about access to resources and it's about equality now for some of our respondents. The American dream is about money Craig p as he notes puts the fancy car the guy holding that water cash a big mansion in the background For some the American dream does mean these material things and financial stability is no doubt a key piece of many people's answers They want to be able to have a good education health care a family to go on vacation to have a job they enjoy Money is it extricably bound up in a lot of what this means, but it's not just about money It's about freedom and opportunity to be able to choose a path for themselves The way they're viewing the American dream is not linear and it's not one size fits all It's about opportunity as I mentioned This is a keyword that would come up in our research whenever we ask people to define for themselves What does the American dream mean to you? Things like it's not about uh, the money you have but the opportunity you have It's about equal opportunity granting you the freedom and economic mobility without restrictions And we find that this idea of the American dream is not just something that one type of millennial feels They have access to we found that across racial and ethnic lines Two-thirds of millennials believe that they can have the opportunity to achieve the American dream So what's the foundation on which young Americans can build this sort of access and opportunity? Well, first the environment is a huge piece of the puzzle in our research We found 74 percent saying that the environment in their community is very or extremely important when it comes to opportunity That put it right at the top of the list of all of the factors that we were testing And unfortunately for all the optimism we see in many other parts of our research We find the environment is the one thing that an awful lot of millennials and gen veers do think is getting worse While technology and innovation are enabling all sorts of positive changes opening up opportunities in terms of jobs careers and better quality of life 43 percent in our survey say that they think the environment is getting worse And it's going to be worse for them than it was for their parents So the environment and making sure that it is protected is critical for many millennials and gen zers as they think about building a future that enables them to have opportunity But another big piece of the puzzle is education in our survey education was also Very high up on the list of what millennials and gen zers said they believe is critical to having opportunity and success in life 72 percent say that the public schools in their community are extremely or very important when it comes to unlocking opportunity Which means they have pretty high expectations of what our schools can and should be doing When we asked in our research about what they believe public schools ought to be focused on The millennials and gen zers we spoke to said it was particularly important for schools to focus on things like career and life skills The sorts of things that once someone graduates from high school They can immediately put into use making sure that they're going to have the opportunities ahead of them that they desire So the new american dream what we find in our research is that it's not about a white picket fence It's not necessarily about any kind of one-size-fits-all image of what success looks like It's not linear. It's not harshly defined instead It's about people having the opportunity to choose the path and to have doors open along the way for them As they try to succeed in america and whether it's through focusing on preserving the environment We have today and making it even better Or strengthening our education system so that it can provide the skills people need to access that opportunity most fully There's a lot ahead for millennials and gen z when they think about the changes and the challenges that they're going to face As they move forward in america Thank you again to the walton family foundation for sponsoring this research and for partnering on this project back to you Hi, i'm christin soltus anderson partner and co-founder of echelon insights And i'm so excited today to be able to present to you the findings of a really exciting research project I've had the opportunity to work on in partnership with the walton family foundation We wanted to understand what millennials and generation z think about opportunity success and the american dreams And the results of our research. I think tell us a pretty optimistic story about where the next generation is going to lead america You can understand why many people might think that the next generation is going to be worse off The world in which they have grown up has been a very turbulent one over just the last year alone We've had headlines of a pandemic economic collapse changes with the supreme court over the last few decades We've had wars economic collapses in the year 2008 school shootings A number of things that might lead you to believe that the world we're leaving to the next generation Is not as good as the world we will first give it And when you ask people in surveys if they think the next generation will be better or worse off Most americans say worse off. They don't think that things are headed in the right direction But in our research, we find that young americans have a slightly different view of their own prospects Even in the midst of a global pandemic millennials and generation z we find are taking a slightly different view In our research, we surveyed 2000 members of the millennial generation and 2000 members of generation z Which roughly looks at those between the ages of 13 and 40 years old here in the u.s We followed this up with some in-depth interviews of over 100 participants to gain a deeper insight into their views The why behind the results that they gave us What we found was a lot of optimism in general only 13 percent of millennials and gen z Say that they think they're likely to be worse off than their parents were and in particular young people of color seeing the most optimistic about their prospects versus those of the past generation While young white americans only 42 percent say they expect to be better off than their parents That goes all the way up to 59 for young black americans A sign that young people do believe that progress is being made When we ask young americans how they view their own generation What might make them different from those who came before or those who are coming after We got some really interesting results about the words that millennials and gen z use to describe themselves Which gives us some clues as to why these generations do feel more prepared to tackle the future For millennials, the words they tend to use are things like resilient persistent Entrepreneurs, we have one quote from a participant named Elena who talks about being the adaptable generation Essentially that millennials have confronted a lot of challenges as they've grown up And they've always had to adapt and rise to the occasion to find ways to be very practical And to adapt to the world that they're given Generations e takes a slightly different view. They're newer on the scene their teenagers or those in their early 20s And maybe what makes them distinct is their voice that they view themselves as conscious innovative Spoken very comfortable using technology to make their voice heard And so in some ways rather than trying to keep their heads down and adapt to the problems that are in front of them They use their voices to call out for change to try to organize to bring about a brighter new future for themselves Now it doesn't mean just because we're finding all this optimism in the survey that there aren't big hurdles that millennials and generation z face Even though many of them believe that they're going to be better off in the future That the american dream is accessible to them It doesn't mean that they think that there's nothing standing in their way In our survey we find four and ten young people think that higher education is going to be too expensive or hard for them to access Similarly 40 percent think that not having access to health care is an extremely or very big problem standing in their way Education is a huge piece of this puzzle and many say that they feel they haven't been taught the most important life skills And that that's going to be an extremely or very big problem that prevents them from accessing opportunity And certain things like racial inequality are a particular note to young people of color Six and ten black millennials and gen z years that we spoke to said they view racial inequality As something that is an extremely or very big problem standing in their way But nonetheless, we still find that two thirds of millennials and generation z years believe that they will achieve the american dream Which then raises the question How are they defining the american dream? We wanted to ask this in our research and what we found were a number of people posting pictures when we said give us an image That reminds you of what the american dream is Someone posts a picture black and white picket fence and they'd say it reminds me of what I would see in textbooks as a kid But I think the american dream has changed since this image That nowadays most millennials and gen z years do not view the american dream as Husband and wife white picket fence car two and a half kids. Maybe a dog Instead they're viewing things a little bit differently that version of the american dream is history for them Instead they talk a lot more about Opportunity that the american dream is about the ability to have the opportunity to build the life that you want I don't think I envision the american dream in the stereotypical light of white picket fence four person family financial success type of way I think I view it as america serving as an opportunity for people to live their lives It's about access to resources and it's about equality now for some of our respondents. The american dream is about money Craig p as he notes puts the fancy car the guy holding that water cash a big mansion in the background For some the american dream does mean these material things and financial stability is no doubt a key piece of many people's answers They want to be able to have a good education health care a family to go on vacation to have a job. They enjoy Money is it extricably bound up in a lot of what this means, but it's not just about money It's about Freedom and opportunity to be able to choose a path for themselves The way they're viewing the american dream is not linear and it's not one size fits all It's about opportunity as I mentioned This is a keyword that would come up in our research whenever we ask people to define for themselves What does the american dream mean to you? Things like it's not about Uh, the money you have but the opportunity you have It's about equal opportunity granting you the freedom and economic mobility without restrictions And we find that this idea of the american dream is not just something that one type of millennial feels They have access to we found that across racial and ethnic lines Two-thirds of millennials believe that they can have the opportunity to achieve the american dream So what's the foundation on which young americans can build this sort of access and opportunity? Well, first the environment is a huge piece of the puzzle in our research We found 74 percent saying that the environment in their community is very or extremely important when it comes to opportunity That put it right at the top of the list of all of the factors that we were testing And unfortunately for all the optimism we see in many other parts of our research We find the environment is the one thing that an awful lot of millennials and gen zers do think is getting worse While technology and innovation are enabling all sorts of positive changes opening up opportunities in terms of jobs careers and better quality of life 43 percent in our survey say that they think the environment is getting worse And it's going to be worse for them than it was for their parents So the environment and making sure that it is protected is critical for many millennials and gen zers as they think about building a future That enables them to have opportunity But another big piece of the puzzle is education In our survey education was also very high up on the list of what millennials and gen zers said they believe is critical The public schools in their community are extremely or very important when it comes to unlocking opportunity Which means they have pretty high expectations of what our schools can and should be doing When we asked in our research about what they believe public schools ought to be focused on The millennials and gen zers we spoke to said it was particularly important for schools to focus on things like career and life Skills the sorts of things that once someone graduates from high school They can immediately put into use making sure that they're going to have the opportunities ahead of them that they desire So the new american dream what we find in our research is that it's not about a white picket fence It's not necessarily about any kind of one size fits all image of what success looks like It's not linear. It's not harshly defined instead It's about people having the opportunity to choose the path and to have doors open along the way for them As they try to succeed in america and whether it's through focusing on preserving the environment We have today and making it even better Or strengthening our education system so that it can provide the skills people need to access that opportunity most fully There's a lot ahead for millennials and gen z when they think about the changes and the challenges that they're going to face As they move forward in america Thank you again to the walton family foundation for sponsoring this research and for partnering on this project back to you Hi, i'm christin soltus anderson partner and co-founder of echelon insights And i'm so excited today to be able to present to you the findings of a really exciting research project I've had the opportunity to work on in partnership with the walton family foundation We wanted to understand what millennials and generation z think about opportunity success and the american dream And the results of our research i think tell us a pretty optimistic story about where the next generation is going to lead america You can understand why many people might think that the next generation is going to be worse off The world in which they have grown up has been a very turbulent one over just the last year alone We've had headlines of a pandemic economic collapse changes with the supreme court over the last few decades We've had wars economic collapses in the year 2008 school shootings A number of things that might lead you to believe that the world we're leaving to the next generation Is not as good as the world we will first give it And when you ask people in surveys if they think the next generation will be better or worse off Most americans say worse off. They don't think that things are headed in the right direction But in our research, we find that young americans have a slightly different view of their own prospects Even in the midst of a global pandemic millennials and generation z we find are taking a slightly different view In our research, we surveyed 2000 members of the millennial generation and 2000 members of generation z Which roughly looks at those between the ages of 13 and 40 years old here in the us We followed this up with some in-depth interviews of over 100 participants to gain a deeper insight into their views The why behind the results that they gave us What we found was a lot of optimism in general only 13 percent of millennials and gen z Say that they think they're likely to be worse off than their parents were And in particular young people of color seem the most optimistic about their prospects versus those of the past generation While young white americans only 42 percent say they expect to be better off than their parents That goes all the way up to 59 percent for young black americans A sign that young people do believe that progress is being made But when we ask young americans how they view their own generation What might make them different from those who came before or those who are coming after We got some really interesting results about the words that millennials and gen z use to describe themselves Which gives us some clues as to why these generations do feel more prepared to tackle the future For millennials, the words they tend to use are things like resilient persistent entrepreneurs We have one quote from a participant named elena who talks about being the adaptable generation Essentially that millennials have confronted a lot of challenges as they've grown up And they've always had to adapt and rise to the occasion to find ways to be very practical and to adapt to the world that they're given Generations e takes a slightly different view. They're newer on the scene They're teenagers or those in their early 20s And maybe what makes them distinct is their voice that they view themselves as conscious innovative outscoken Very comfortable using technology to make their voice heard And so in some ways rather than trying to keep their heads down and adapt to the problems that are in front of them They use their voices to call out for change to try to organize to bring about a brighter new future for themselves Oh, it doesn't mean just because we're finding all this optimism in the survey that there aren't big hurdles that millennials and generation z face Even though many of them believe that they're going to be better off in the future That the american dream is accessible to them It doesn't mean that they think that there's nothing standing in their way In our survey we find four in ten young people think that higher education is going to be too expensive or hard for them to access Similarly 40 percent think that not having access to health care is an extremely or very big problem standing in their way Education is a huge piece of this puzzle and many say that they feel they haven't been taught the most important life skills And that that's going to be an extremely or very big problem that prevents them from accessing opportunity And certain things like racial inequality are of particular note to young people of color Six in ten black millennials and gen zers that we spoke to said they view racial inequality as something that is an extremely or very Big problem standing in their way But nonetheless we still find that two-thirds of millennials and generation zers believe that they will achieve the american dream Which then raises the question. How are they defining the american dream? We wanted to ask this in our research and what we found were a number of people posting pictures when we said Give us an image that reminds you of what the american dream is Someone posts a picture black and white white picket fence and they'd say it reminds me of what I would see in textbooks as a kid But I think the american dream has changed since this image But nowadays most millennials and gen zers do not view the american dream as Husband in life white picket fence car two and a half kids. Maybe a dog Instead they're viewing things a little bit differently that version of the american dream is history for them Instead they talk a lot more about opportunity that the american dream is about the ability to have the opportunity to build The life that you want I don't think I envision the american dream in the stereotypical light of white picket fence four person family financial success type of way I think I view it as america serving as an opportunity for people to live their lives It's about access to resources and it's about equality now for some of our respondents the american dream is about money Craig p as he notes puts the fancy car the guy holding that water cash a big mansion in the background For some the american dream does mean these material things and financial stability is no doubt a key piece of many people's answers They want to be able to have a good education health care a family to go on vacation to have a job They enjoy money is it extricably bound up in a lot of what this means, but it's not just about money It's about freedom and opportunity to be able to choose a path for themselves The way they're viewing the american dream is not linear and it's not one size fits all It's about opportunity as I mentioned This is a keyword that would come up in our research whenever we ask people to design for themselves What does the american dream mean to you? Things like it's not about uh, the money you have but the opportunity you have It's about equal opportunity granting you the freedom and economic mobility without restrictions And we find that this idea of the american dream is not just something that one type of millennial feels they have access to We found that across racial and ethnic minds Two thirds of millennials believe that they can have the opportunity to achieve the american dream So what's the foundation on which young americans can build this sort of access and opportunity? Well, first the environment is a huge piece of the puzzle in our research We found 74 percent saying that the environment in their community is very or extremely important when it comes to opportunity That put it right at the top of the list of all of the factors that we were testing And unfortunately for all the optimism we see in many other parts of our research We find the environment is the one thing that an awful lot of millennials and gen zers do think is getting worse While technology and innovation are enabling all sorts of positive changes opening up opportunities in terms of jobs careers and better quality of life 43 percent in our survey say that they think the environment is getting worse And it's going to be worse for them than it was for their parents So the environment and making sure that it is protected is critical for many millennials and gen zers as they think about building a future That enables them to have opportunity But another big piece of the puzzle is education In our survey education was also very high up on the list of what millennials and gen zers said they believe is critical To having opportunity and success in life 72 percent say that the public schools in their community are extremely or very important when it comes to unlocking opportunity Which means they have pretty high expectations of what our schools can and should be doing When we asked in our research about what they believe public schools ought to be focused on The millennials and gen zers we spoke to said it was particularly important for schools to focus on things like career and life skills The sorts of things that once someone graduates from high school They can immediately put into use making sure that they're going to have the opportunities ahead of them that they desire So the new american dream what we find in our research is that it's not about a white picket fence It's not necessarily about any kind of one size fits all image of what success looks like It's not linear. It's not harshly defined instead It's about people having the opportunity To choose the path and to have doors open along the way for them as they try to succeed in america And whether it's through focusing on preserving the environment we have today and making it even better Or strengthening our education system so that it can provide the skills people need to access that opportunity most fully There's a lot ahead for millennials and gen z when they think about the changes and the challenges That they're going to face as they move forward in america Thank you again to the welton family foundation for sponsoring this research and for partnering on this project back to you