April 7, 2026
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had a lot of conversations with professors at GW and around the country, employers, and many of you about college students and recent graduates. Not you specifically - you’re SMPA students, you work hard and are brave, you’re analytical and thoughtful, and generally the kind of students professors want to teach and employers want to hire. You also know you’re atypical (and even you may not always live up to those accolades all of the time).
A lot of what I hear is what people say about every generation that follows them, and I was often one of those students who deserved the derision thrown my generation’s way. But some of what I hear is new. Professors and employers worry about some young people’s willingness to take honest feedback, to think creatively, to problem solve, and to hold themselves accountable. Some of what I hear from you is that you’ve been in a blender since you could pay attention to the world around you and that everything can feel like a high-stakes hustle to get to the next thing, which itself is a high stakes hustle to the thing you have to hustle in. I worry that every adult tells you everything is awful and that you’re doomed, and we’ve given you no reason to believe otherwise. There’s a lot going on in a lot of different directions. The truth is probably far more complicated and interesting, as it usually is.
As SMPA students, you know that our social world is talked into existence. Whether or not you’re different from any group of college students before you matters less than the fact that a lot of people act as if you are. “Political language,” as Murray Edelman wrote, “is political reality; there is no other so far as the meaning of events to actor and spectators is concerned.” A lot of pundits, parents, professors, and professionals are shouting that there’s something we should pay attention to and worry about.
Here’s my request - talk to me about it. Let me know what you’re hearing and how you feel when you hear stuff like the above. Part of our job in SMPA is to respond to this moment in ways that help prepare you for the next moment. We can’t do that without you. Drop by my office or shoot me an email, let me know what you think.