Webinar: What Do Youth Want? Results and Applications From the Sacred Heart University National Polls
This webinar was moved from September 24 to February 11.
Young people are not only the primary constituents of colleges and universities—they are also the generation that will inherit the pressing sustainability and social justice challenges of our time. But what do today’s youth actually want? How do they perceive these issues? And what do they believe it will take to create meaningful progress?
This webinar explores answers to those questions through findings from two national polls conducted by Sacred Heart University (SHU) in 2024 and 2025. These surveys give voice to U.S. youth (ages 15–29) and reveal how their perspectives are already shaping SHU’s curriculum—such as the First-Year Writing Seminar—and informing the development of the new Institute for Sustainability and Social Justice (ISSJ). Participants will be invited to consider how these insights might be applied across their own institutions.
The first report, Distress and Desires—United States Youth on Sustainability, Social Justice, Climate Change, and the Role of Higher Education (released September 25, 2024), highlights several themes:
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Eco-anxiety is widespread: More than half of U.S. youth report climate concerns that cause psychological distress affecting their daily lives.
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Shared values across regions: Despite assumptions of division, there were minimal regional differences. Nearly 8 in 10 youth nationwide emphasized the importance of “caring” and “consciousness/awareness/mindfulness” as essential capacities—and believed universities should cultivate them.
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Gap between responsibility and impact: While 77% felt personal responsibility to act on climate change, nearly 60% believed individual efforts would have “limited” or “no effect.”
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Implications for higher education: One in two youth consider sustainability and social justice relevant to their future careers, and nearly three in five say such programming makes them more likely to apply to a given college or university.
The results of the 2025 national poll will also be shared once available, offering fresh insights to guide sustainability-focused curriculum and institutional initiatives. Join us to explore how higher education can better align with the priorities, concerns, and hopes of the generation that will carry this work forward.
Presenters
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Brooke Suter, Report co-author & Advisor to the developing Institute for Sustainability and Social Justice at Sacred Heart University, Sacred Heart University Ms. Suter’s passion is supporting personal resilience and action empowerment to holistically address the climate crisis. As a state or national director for 20 years, she worked in 50 states and federally to build diverse coalitions, empower activists and lead adoption of nationally precedent-setting environment and public health legislation, regulation and incentive-based programs in the United States. Shifting her focus to the high-impact potential of universities, she pursued the role of the inner condition in supporting transformative social change. Now, building on nearly a decade of co-facilitating the MIT Sloan School of Management class, “U-Lab: Transforming Self, Business & Society” with Theory U founder Otto Scharmer, she works to integrate the Inner Development Goals and MIT’s Theory U: Awareness-based Systems Change to support sustainability systems-thinking across coursework, culture and alumni at Harvard University, Sacred Heart University, and in other venues. In addition, Ms Suter is the Chief Action Officer & Co-creator of the alumni Harvard Climate Action Training, Co-founder of the Inner Development Goals (IDG) Connecticut Possibilities Network, and Principal of Sustainable Leadership to Thrive. She hold a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University and a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. |
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Kirk Bartholomew, Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Social Justice (ISSJ) at Sacred Heart University (SHU), and Associate Professor of Biology, Sacred Heart University Kirk Bartholomew is the Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Social Justice (ISSJ), and has taught as an Associate Professor of Biology for 25 years at Sacred Heart University (SHU). His approach addresses not only the underlying issues and potential solutions to problems of sustainability and social justice, but also the inner skills and capacities required to implement solutions and achieve positive change. Under his leadership, the Inner Development Goals have been adopted as a key organizing frameworks of the ISSJ and are being incorporated as topics into the Sustainability Across the Curriculum development program that is being facilitated by the ISSJ. Prof. Bartholomew was a participant in the 2024 cohort of AASHE Sustainability Across the Curriculum Support Group and is an investigator on multiple external grants that SHU has received to promote this activity. He received his PhD and BS from the University of Vermont, and completed his postdoctoral research at McGill University. |