- Jenna Beckler
To Thine Own Selfie Be True
What characteristics make up a millennial? Some would say selfies, laziness, and entitlement. Spend a few minutes with a group of millennials and you will see that that is far from the truth. The National Millennial Community (NMC) is a group founded by Bill Imada, Chairman and Chief Connectivity Officer of IW Group, Inc. and a National PBS Board member. NMC was created in 2015 with a goal to change the conversation about millennials. Community members from all across the country meet and have phone calls with top executives from various companies.
Mr. Imada chooses one university per state to select four student representatives from that university to participate in executive phone calls and to collaborate with other student reps across the country via Basecamp software. Another perk is that university reps get to travel to different cities to meet face to face with other reps from all across the country. Cities are chosen by Mr. Imada and the rest of the NMC team. During each visits, multiple companies
are coordinated to participate during the 2-3 day excursions.
I was selected at the beginning of this past spring to be one of Tennessee Tech’s student reps. In June, I met with other community reps from Colorado to Delaware in Chicago,
Illinois.
Over the course of three days, thirty NMC members worked hard to change the conversation with executives from companies such as McDonald's, Allstate Insurance, and NBC Universal/NBC Media. Each company was given the opportunity to organize the time spent with the community as they saw fit. NBC decided that it would best to have an open discussion about topics chosen by executives from certain departments.
This particular meeting showed how diverse millennials actually are. It all started with a simple question, “What is the first thing you do in the morning?” Some answered Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. While others answered email or reading/watching the news.
Millennials are supposed to be this “selfie obsessed” generation, but really millennials are inspiring companies to create ways for social media to go beyond the selfie. We are curious about current events and up and coming technology. During the discussion with NBC, NMC members shared how we now use Snapchat for our morning news updates instead of turning on the tv and flipping to our favorite news channel.
It is such an honor to be part of this movement. I am learning and growing throughout my college experience, and this opportunity gives me a wider scope to prepare me to be the best professional and citizen that I can be. Millennials are changing the world and it’s not because of the time we were born, it is the world we were born into. All we want to do is contribute and experience it all, while still making a difference. NMC is a great start and I can’t
wait to see what’s next.
