Statewide initiative will invite young people ages 14–25 to answer: What must Michigan’s next governor understand about your generation?
DETROIT — Michigan’s next governor will inherit responsibility for decisions that could shape the lives of a generation—from education and jobs to artificial intelligence, economic opportunity, the cost of living and whether young people can afford to build their futures in the state.
Now, Michigan’s young people will have a platform to tell the next governor what they believe that future should look like.
The PuLSE Institute, a national anti-poverty think tank based in Detroit, is launching the PuLSE Next Generation Project, a statewide initiative designed to bring the voices, experiences and aspirations of young Michiganders ages 14–25 into the major public conversations shaping their future.
The project grows out of The PuLSE Institute’s longstanding Junior Fellows Leadership Program and expands that work into a broader statewide platform for a generation coming of age during a period of profound economic, technological and social change.
At the center of the initiative is a defining question:
WHAT DOES MICHIGAN OWE ITS NEXT GENERATION?
“Young people are constantly told that they are the future, but too often they are absent from the rooms where that future is being decided,” said Bankole Thompson, Editor-in-Chief of PuLSE Ideas & Commentary. “Their experiences, their ideas and their aspirations belong in the serious conversations shaping Michigan right now. We want the next governor and other leaders to hear directly from them.”
LETTERS TO MICHIGAN’S NEXT GOVERNOR
The project’s inaugural undertaking will place young people directly into Michigan’s gubernatorial conversation through “Letters to Michigan’s Next Governor.”
Young Michiganders will be invited to answer: What must Michigan’s next governor understand about your generation and what must Michigan do to give your generation a genuine opportunity to build a future here?
The PuLSE Institute will seek contributions from across the state—from high school and college students to community college students and apprentices; from young workers and emerging entrepreneurs to young people still determining what their future might hold.
Voices from Detroit and other cities, suburbs and rural communities will be invited.
They do not have to be policy experts. They do not have to hold titles. Some are not yet old enough to vote. But they are old enough to know what kind of future they are being handed.
Selected essays and contributions will be published by PuLSE Ideas & Commentary, the editorial arm of The PuLSE Institute, providing young people with a public platform to address Michigan’s next governor and the broader leadership of the state.
Their contributions will explore the issues they believe deserve attention—from education, jobs and entrepreneurship to housing, technology, economic opportunity, transportation and the cost of building an independent life.
BEYOND THE ELECTION
The PuLSE Next Generation Project will not end when Michigan elects its next governor.
The election will serve as its first major public conversation, not its final one.
Beyond the election, the project will create opportunities for young people to engage leaders in government, business, education and civic life; develop their leadership; contribute ideas; and question the institutions making decisions that will shape the world they inherit.
The larger question is therefore not simply who governs Michigan next.
It is whether Michigan is building a state in which its next generation can see a future for itself.
For some young people, that may mean college. For others, the skilled trades, entrepreneurship, public service, technology or entering the workforce. Their paths will differ, but the underlying question remains the same:
Will Michigan give them a genuine opportunity to build meaningful lives here?
“Young people should not merely inherit Michigan’s future,” Thompson said. “They should help shape it.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION & SUBMISSIONS
For information about participation, submissions and the PuLSE Next Generation Project, contact Bankole Thompson, Editor-in-Chief of PuLSE Ideas & Commentary, at info@thepulseinstitute.org.