Understanding Diversity Is the Solution. And Generation Z Knows It Well

It was a little after 5:30pm on 22 May in Boston, where I was set to arrive after visiting Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, when the latest, cowardly terrorist attack occurred. In Boston, the city where an atrocious act of terrorism took place on 15 April four years ago, I was working with the Dean of International Affairs Stefano Caselli to create new opportunities for our students and to meet our alumni community.

The thought of the destroyed lives of so many young people who had just enjoyed an experience of pure fun, shook me deeply, as I'm sure it shook all of you. And it happened at a concert in Manchester, a historic capital of pop music, and a town on the rise that has reinvented itself industrially. We were once again appalled when the social and traditional media suddenly delivered the impact of this umpteenth incomprehensible tragedy.

How should we react? How can we look with optimism and confidence towards our future, that of our students, that of our children?
I found an answer in the same reason I came to Boston: by creating new opportunities for exchanging and sharing cultures and understanding for our students who, we must remember, are from more than 80 different countries and who represent the future of the planet.

Only through mutual understanding and a comprehension of different cultural traditions can we come together and drive away suspicion and diffidence.
Diversity is a source of wealth and innovation. Understanding how to appreciate it and integrate it is something extraordinary that Generation Z has in its DNA, something that also concerns the natural evolution of society.

I found an answer in the same reason I came to Boston: by creating new opportunities for exchanging and sharing cultures and understanding for our students who, we must remember, are from more than 80 different countries and who represent the future of the planet.

Only through mutual understanding and a comprehension of different cultural traditions can we come together and drive away suspicion and diffidence.
Diversity is a source of wealth and innovation. Understanding how to
appreciate it and integrate it is something extraordinary that Generation Z has in its DNA, something that also concerns the natural evolution of society.