Last week, Amber was a panelist at an exciting event as part of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Speaker Series on the rising influence of the Millennial generation. Students from nine Atlanta-area colleges and universities packed the room to hear from moderator Soledad O’Brien, Aaron Smith from the Young Invincibles and Walker Smith of the Futures Company on innovative solutions to problems, myths and facts about the Millennial Generation.

Kicking off the discussion, the entire audience was challenged to take a test that was published earlier this month by the PEW Research Center called “How Millennial Are You?

The panelist delved right into discussing the community of Millennials that we live, breath and work with. When asked about the attributes of Millennials that are true, false and just plain outrageous, Cruz stated, “Millennials are recreating what it means to be in a community. No matter what they do they want to have an impact on their community, whether it’s on a local or global scale, and they believe in the American Dream. “

The panel held true to the belief here at Moblize.org that although Millennials have become the objects of desire for some elected officials, institutions and corporations, we are still looking to form ties with other Generations.  The fact that Mobilze.org CEO, while weeks away from giving birth to her first child, was live-tweeting the entire panel speaks to the fact that Millennials are the most innovative, tech-savvy generation in history, and are constantly creating new ways for citizens to participate in their communities.

When asked about apathy around voting in the 2012 elections, Amber pushed back with facts on what’s really at stake with Millenials this November. “Despite polling, they are voting based on their values and not along party lines. Maybe Millennials will do more grassroots work and becoming engaged in non traditional ways creating change that they can see in their local communities.”

The audience members dove into the discussion as well talking about the realities around diversity and challenges in optimism with what the American Dream looks like for the Millennial Generation on the “Millennial Only” microphone.

This was Soledad’s idea, we love it, and think this is how every board meeting, Congressional hearing and social gathering should be.