The Class of 2025 are...

1. Starting A Poetry Renaissance

Incoming students were inspired by Amanda Gorman’s reading of her poem, “The Hill We Climb” at the Presidential Inauguration to rediscover the power of poetry in their own lives, and on their own terms.

Leading Support:

"How Amanda Gorman became the voice of a new American era"
The Guardian

Further Reading:

"'Black Lit' Exhibition of Rare Books at Marist’s Cannavino Library Celebrates Black History Month"
Marist College
 

2. Bringing awareness to veteran college students

Although less than 5% of the Class of 2025 will be veterans, most colleges and universities are focusing more campus resources on supporting student veterans on campus.

Leading Support:

"Commentary: Institutions of higher learning must double down support for student veterans"
Military Times

Further Reading:

"Poughkeepsie veteran reflects on his walk across the country"
Times Union
 

3. Adapting to a virtual college experience

Incoming students and their professors are among the first to adjust to a new reality of digital learning, which has changed the face of higher education for years to come.

Leading Support:

"When the Pandemic Ends, Will School Change Forever?"
The New York Times

Further Reading:

"Today’s Awkward Zoom Classes Could Bring a New Era of Higher Education"
EdSurge
 

4. Enduring an unprecedented public health crisis on campus

Depending on where their college or university is located, students in the class of 2025 are experiencing vast differences in COVID-19 regulations on campus, leading to a disparity in educational quality.

Leading Support:

"These Colleges Won’t Mandate a Covid-19 Vaccine. Instead, They’ll Try to Entice."
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Further Reading:

"Here’s a List of Colleges That Require Students or Employees to Be Vaccinated Against Covid-19"
The Chronicle of Higher Education
 

5. Redefining arts and culture

Incoming students are expressing themselves creatively and patronizing the arts through non-fungible tokens (NFT).

What are NFTs? Non-fungible tokens are the provenance of digital assets bought and sold on the cryptocurrency blockchain. “NFTs have allowed some digital artists, and especially those without traditional fine-arts backgrounds, to profit from their work as never before. NFTs—in theory, if not in practice—reinscribe digital artworks within the framework of scarcity that derives from the exchange value of physical objects,” describes Tina Rivers Ryan, a historian of media art (Ryan, 2021). Cryptocurrency requires immense energy and resources to sustain, and only time will tell if this controversial alternative marketplace and NFTs will endure with young investors and arts patrons.

Featuring:

Marist Art & Digital Media major and football player, Dazhon Miller, who minted an NFT for his capping project. Learn more at rarible.com/zhon

Leading Support:

"Token Gesture"
Art Forum

Further Reading:

"What To Know About Cryptocurrency and Scams"
Federal Trade Commission
 

6. Building Gen Z E-commerce

As part of Generation Z, the Class of 2025 expects to find empowering online shopping experiences from the new “internet of behavior.”

Generation Z is those between the ages of 10 and 24 years old and comprises 1.8 billion people and 24% of the global population. This makes them the largest generational cohort in history. They are the first generation born entirely in the internet age and boast a smartphone possession-rate that nears 100% everywhere in the world. Gen Z is hungry for innovative shopping experiences using behavioral capabilities to empower and engage with them rather than exploit and alienate them (ey.com/megatrends, 2020). They are driving the shift from the Internet of Things to an “Internet of Behavior.”

Featuring:

"Marist Students Start Consulting Group to Help Local Business in Need"
Marist College

Leading Support:

"Are you reframing your future or is the future reframing you?"
EY

Further Reading:

The Future of Ecommerce
Shopify
 

7. Demanding Justice and Sustainability in Globalized Fashion

First-year students are demanding fashion brands that offer dignity and justice to employees throughout the global value chain, as retail sales lag from the ongoing pandemic.

In January 2021, the Trump administration banned all imports of cotton from the Xinjiang region of China, and declared what was happening with forced labor camps in China as “genocide.” The Workers Rights Consortium estimated that cotton from Xinjiang was involved in more than 1.5 billion garments imported annually by American brands. As the pandemic continues to roil global retail, young consumers have become more attuned to the working conditions of who makes their clothes. Fashion has become “diplomatic football” (Friedman and Paton, 2021).

Leading Support:

“What Is Going On With China, Cotton and All of These Clothing Brands?”
The New York Times

Further Reading:

"Fashion, Xinjiang and the perils of supply chain transparency"
Financial Times
 

8. Eroding the Death Penalty

Incoming students are less likely to support the death penalty in America than earlier generations. The Class of 2025 is more diverse in thought and demographically than previous cohorts.

Leading Support:

"U.S. Support for Death Penalty Holds Above Majority Level"
Gallup

Further Reading:

"Age, Period, and Cohort Effects on Death Penalty Attitudes in the United States, 1974-2014"
Criminology
 

9. Witnessing the first U.S. state to decriminalize drugs

Incoming students now live in a country where Oregon decriminalized drug use, drug possession, and low-level drug sales, as Portugal did 20 years ago. These policies have shown that using a public health approach reduces drug overdose, HIV infections, and decreases incarceration for drug-related offenses.

Leading Support:

"Drug Decriminalization"
The Drug Policy Alliance

Further Reading:

"Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Learning from a Health and Human-Centered Approach"
The Drug Policy Alliance
 

10. Experiencing a re-emergence of White Supremacy in America

Incoming students live in an era where a primary threat of terrorism to Americans comes from domestic white supremacists, rather than from abroad. This is the first incoming college class in United States history to have witnessed the confederate flag displayed in the Capitol.

Leading Support:

"Condemnations of Capitol Rioting (and Trump) Continue"
Inside Higher Ed

Further Reading:

"Students Explore African American History in the American South"
Marist College

"Confronting White Supremacy"
FBI

"Perceptions of Generation Z regarding Terrorism: A Cross-Regional Study"
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

"The Whole Story in a Single Photo"
The Atlantic