Investing in the Next Generation

What does it mean to invest in the next generation? For me, it’s a question that has quietly followed me most of my life.

As long as I can remember, I’ve thought about the future. I imagined what I would be when I grew up, who I would marry, and how many children I’d have. By the age of 10, I began to understand goal setting and constantly challenged myself. Ambition and achievement became important to me, and opened doors to discover my passions, talents, weaknesses, and the skills that would shape my life.

My first experience teaching came during my freshman year of high school when I decided to tutor fifth graders in math at a local community center. It wasn’t my first choice for an extracurricular activity, but I begrudgingly agreed after a friend convinced me it would look good on my college applications. To my surprise, I loved it. I knew I didn’t want to be a classroom teacher, but I discovered I had a heart for young people.

Throughout my career, investing in the next generation has been a through line.

Instinctively—or perhaps even divinely—I am always asking, how can young people be involved? When I became Editor in Chief of Our Times, that commitment naturally became part of our newsroom.

Since 2022, we’ve involved youth in nearly every part of our operation. From newspaper production and storytelling to advertising sales and multimedia, young people have gained skills, built confidence, learned about their communities and government, connected with others, and earned income while doing meaningful work.

Memorial Community Development Corporation has invested in these efforts from the very beginning, and I am grateful for its leadership, vision, and partnership.

As we planned this first Youth Voices edition, we wanted to celebrate not only the young people sharing their voices, but also the organizations investing in their growth. This issue is just the beginning. Inside these pages, you’ll find stories written by youth alongside stories highlighting the people, programs, and partnerships helping shape the next generation.

This past year, these young people have challenged and inspired me. We don’t always understand one another. I was born in the 1900s, after all. And we don’t always agree, but I’ve made a commitment to figure it out. I hope you’ll make that same commitment.

Why?

Because we need one another.

Rev. Dr. Arlicia Biggers Dotson recently reintroduced me to the African philosophy of Ubuntu—“I am because we are.” It’s a reminder that none of us becomes who we’re meant to be alone. God created us to live in community, and young people deserve to be valued as an important part of that community.

I’m not suggesting they’re our equals in every way, but I do believe they can contribute far more than we often allow them to. They are smart, curious, creative, and ambitious. Like every generation before them, they’re trying to figure out who they are while navigating the world we’ve handed them. And if we’re honest, that world isn’t easy.

We’ve fallen short in too many ways—lacking leadership, love, empathy, and compassion. Technology moves so fast that even I struggle to keep up. We spend too much time on our phones and not enough time being fully present with one another. Yet being present is exactly what our young people need.

As you read their stories, interviews, opinions, advice, and creative work throughout this special Youth Voices edition, I hope you’ll do more than enjoy them. I hope you’ll listen.

Listen to their ideas.

Listen to their experiences.

Listen to their hopes.

Then find your own way to invest—even if it’s through an encouraging word or a simple smile.

They are a huge part of our collective legacy.

Special thanks to the Local Media Association Lab for Journalism Funding, Lumina Foundation, the City of Evansville Department of Metropolitan Development, and the University of Evansville News Lab for their partnership and support of our Youth Media initiatives.