The soft-power benefits of educating the world’s leaders

Isolation. Anxiety. Uncertainty. The stresses of the coronavirus pandemic have taken a toll on Americans of all ages, but a new poll finds that teens and young adults have faced some of the heaviest struggles as they come of age during a time of extreme turmoil.  Specifically, when it comes to education, friendships, and dating, the disruption has had a pronounced impact among Gen Z.

The survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and MTV Entertainment Group, included ages 13-34 and 46% said the pandemic has made it harder to pursue their education or career goals, compared to other generations. After months of remote schooling and limited social interaction, teens and young adults are reporting higher rates of depression and anxiety.

A similar gap when it came to dating and romantic relationships. Forty-five percent in Gen Z reported more difficulty maintaining good relationships with friends, compared to other generations.

The outsize impact on children and adolescents is partly linked to where they are in brain development. Those periods are when humans see the most growth in executive function–the complex mental skills needed to navigate daily life. Dr. Cora Breuner, a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital notes, “It’s a perfect storm where you have isolated learning, decreased social interaction with peers, and parents who also are struggling with similar issues. . . .Young people are falling behind in school, and behind in skills needed to cope with stress and make decisions.”

Condensed from “Poll: Pandemic Stress Has Weighed on Gen Z,” The Springfield News Leader, Nation and the World, Tuesday, December 7, 2021, by Collin Binkley and Hannah Fingerhut

International students here in America and in countries around the world are the key to global mission. Here’s why:

• Global Growth

The growth in the number of international students is explosive. There are five million international students in the world.

• Global Reach
• Change the university, change the world.
• Global Unreached

Two thirds of international students in the US come from the 10/40 window. 

• Global Culture

The global campus is not an American melting pot, nor a Canadian mosaic; instead, it is a global kaleidoscope, in dizzying technicolor. . . . On the global campus, International students—like their domestic peers—are marinated in a global youth culture: selfie-liked identity, app-abbreviated relationships, 15–minute YouTube heroes, tweet size thoughts. On the global campus, trends are transferred and new ones are started. The 

future is being shaped here and disseminated around the world by pixel, and by hand. . . . The worldview that permeates the global campus is a kumbaya of undocumented human goodness and a trust in human ingenuity, with little memory of our histories. On the global campus, young hearts and minds are being shaped, and not in the image of God.

• Global Ministry

China has one and a half million students overseas; but it has half a million foreigners studying in China (as many as in Canada). The top two nationalities of foreign students in China are South Korean and American.

• Global Impact

Most international students who come to faith on our global campuses will return home. Their journey mirrors the shift in the distribution of the church—West to East, North to South. International students transcend both worlds . . .

• Global Missionaries

Churches in the sending countries must send some of their young Christians here as imbedded student missionaries. 

• Global Campuses

Oxford University reports that, “student mobility is shifting from a largely unidirectional east–west flow to a multidirectional movement and encompassing non-traditional sending and host countries.” International education is becoming polycentric. Global campuses are becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

• Global Workplace

On the global campus, the primary focus is work. Students are to succeed when they graduate, so they often left home and crossed the world. . . .We need to teach global students about the power and virtue of the gospel to shape all aspects of their work and the societies their work will build.

• Global Future

The church has not been immune to building its own towers. The city of man is built from the ground up. But the city of God comes down from Him. God is re-gathering the nations, drawing their brightest hopes for the future, to a global campus near you. He wants to reveal Himself to the next generation of every nation.

An article condensed from “Ten Reasons Why the Global Campus is the Future of Mission,” by Alexander Best. Posted July 27, 2019, The Exchange.