The Delta Issue #88

Building at the Intersection of Wisdom and Imagination

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Hi all, Kunjan here.

When I was growing up, getting in touch with my friends meant calling their family landline from my family landline. There were no cell phones, no texting, no Snapchat, no Instagram, and definitely no ChatGPT.

Our world has changed rapidly in the last couple of decades, and yet, so much of what we teach—and how we teach it—has stayed the same.

So what would it look like to prepare young people for a world that will look vastly different from the world we’re living in today, let alone the world we grew up in?

This week, I sat down with Kaya Henderson , Executive Vice President and Executive Director of the Center for Rising Generations at The Aspen Institute .

Kaya is rethinking how we engage young people in shaping the future, bringing them in as partners, not just participants. In this conversation, we talked about how educators can ensure the next generation has the skills, experiences, and opportunities to lead, engage civically, and thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Watch our full conversation below.

The transcript below has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Kunjan Narechania: Welcome to The Delta. I’m Kunjan Narechania , CEO of Watershed Advisors .

Today I’m joined by Kaya Henderson , Executive Vice President and Executive Director of the Center for Rising Generations at The Aspen Institute .

Kaya began her career as a middle school Spanish teacher in the South Bronx through Teach For America , and later served as Chancellor of @DC Public Schools), where she led major gains in student outcomes. Before joining the Aspen Institute, she founded Reconstruction US, an organization focused on teaching African American history and culture in a more complete and affirming way.

Kaya, thank you for being here.

Kaya Henderson:

Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to be here.

The Center for Rising Generations is on a mission to deliver civic education for all

Kunjan: You’ve spent much of your career thinking about how to expand opportunity for young people, not just inside classrooms, but across the systems that shape their lives and futures.

Now, at the Center for Rising Generations, that work is really centered on youth leadership and ensuring young people have a meaningful seat at the table.

Can you share a bit about the work you’re leading there: what you’re building, and what you’re most focused on right now?

Kaya Henderson: I feel incredibly lucky. This is the best job I’ve ever had. Our mission is to make civic engagement, leadership development, and civil discourse a normal part of growing up for every young person, ages 14 to 24.

Too often, we define youth leadership by who stands out—the most academic, the most charismatic, the most connected—the “usual suspects.” But there are so many other young people with leadership potential who never get the chance to develop it.

Leadership is something you learn by doing. So we’re focused on giving more young people real opportunities, more “at-bats.”

We’re working across a few areas:

Expanding access to leadership programs beyond the “usual suspects”
Shifting the narrative about young people (away from deficit-based stories)
Connecting the ecosystem so young people can find opportunities, and organizations can find them
Building new experiences, like a national “civic summer”

We believe young people aren’t just future leaders. They’re leaders right now.

Going Beyond “Student Voice”: What Meaningful Youth Engagement Looks Like

Kunjan: We talk a lot about “student voice,” but you’re pushing us further. What does meaningful youth engagement actually look like?

Kaya: The people closest to the problem usually have the solutions.

When I was Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) , we were required to do a public budget hearing at the beginning of the budget season. It was a very random meeting where people in the community would come and say, “We want more music education,” or “We want more of this,” kind of disconnected from the realities of the budget.

I was frustrated by it, so I said, let’s do this differently. We have 17 high schools. Let’s ask two students from each high school to engage with their peers and figure out what each school’s biggest priorities are for the budget this year. Then we’ll have a budget hearing with student leaders.

Those young people came with the most thoughtful and highly implementable ideas. They said things like: it’s an increasingly global world, but in some schools there’s no foreign language, and in others there are many—how do we think about that? You say we’re the leaders of today, but there’s no real funding or role for student government—what should change?

It was so transformative that we made it a regular part of the process. The first budget hearing is always a youth hearing, and it still is today.

I’ve learned that every time we invite young people to the table as co-creators, not just asking for “student voice,” but asking what we can do together; we get better solutions.

Young People Have Ideas. Leaders Should Be Listening.

Kunjan: What signals from young people should leaders be paying attention to right now?

Kaya: First, young people want nuance.

On issues like technology, for example: they’re actually pretty clear-eyed. They understand the downsides of social media, they know it can be harmful in certain ways. But at the same time, it’s also how they stay connected to their friends and their communities.

So when we jump to solutions like blanket bans, that doesn’t really reflect how they experience it. They have more thoughtful ideas, but they just don’t always get the space to share them.

I also think there are a lot of narratives out there about young people that just aren’t true. We hear that they’re disengaged, or that they blindly trust AI, and that’s not what we’re seeing.

Many young people are thoughtful, skeptical, and intentional about how they use these tools. And they want to work with us, learn from us, and do this together across generations.

I remember one young person on my team said something that really stuck with me. She said, “The solutions are at the intersection of wisdom and imagination.”

And I thought, that’s exactly it. They bring the imagination. We bring the wisdom. And the best solutions come when those two things come together.

Lessons from Women Leaders

Kunjan: Who shaped your understanding of leadership?

Kaya: I grew up surrounded by strong women. My mother and grandmother were both educators. The message I grew up with was: “To whom much is given, much is required.”

I also draw inspiration from women like Mary McLeod Bethune, Septima Clark, and Marva Collins, women who didn’t wait for systems to change; they built new ones.

And I think that’s the lesson I carry with me. If the system isn’t working, it’s an opportunity and a responsibility to fix it.

Advice for Young Women in Leadership

Kunjan: What advice would you give to young women stepping into leadership?

Kaya: We need you now more than ever.

This work isn’t easy. And I think sometimes people are looking for something that feels a little more comfortable, a little more predictable. But if you’re here, it’s because you want to make a change. and that’s what this moment calls for.

We need leaders who are courageous, imaginative, and willing to challenge the status quo and not just accept things as they are.

I often tell young people: do you want to sit on the sidelines, or do you want to step into the arena?

Kunjan: Who is one woman in education to follow right now?

Kaya: Gina Raimondo .

I got to know her when she was governor of Rhode Island, and her commitment to rethinking the education system was unprecedented.

And what I think she does so well is connect the dots—between education, workforce, and economic policy—especially as we’re thinking about AI and the future of work.

That’s exactly the kind of thinking we need to prepare young people for what’s ahead.

Closing

Kunjan: Kaya, thank you for sharing both your imagination and your wisdom.

For those listening, you can find this conversation and others from our Women’s History Month series by searching The Delta on your favorite podcast platform, or on LinkedIn.