Don’t Underestimate the Millennials
June 19, 2014 by Ricardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA
![cellular-1352613_1920-1200x800.jpg](https://ricardoazziz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/cellular-1352613_1920-1200x800.jpg)
What do you think when you hear “millennial generation”?
If you’re tuned in to either traditional or new media, the words that come to mind are probably not so good: perhaps self-absorbed, shallow, lazy, in debt, in trouble?
Though there is no single agreed-upon definition, the term millennial generation generally refers to today’s mid-teens to early-30s adults. I have three younger millennials at home myself, and occasionally one or more of those descriptors may indeed apply.
But more so than past generations at that age? I don’t believe so, and research is increasingly providing a more balanced and nuanced portrait of a generation of young people who are —ready or not — poised to change the world.
Ricardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA
A educator-scientist-executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in higher education, research, and healthcare, Dr. Azziz currently serves as Regents’ Professor, Augusta University; Senior Fellow, American Association of State Colleges & Universities; Visiting Scholar, Pullias Center for Higher Education, University of Southern California; and former founding CEO, Georgia Regents Health System.