Cirrus@Austlit

'Millennials are making their mark on a world that is profoundly different to the one their parents knew.

'Millennials, those born in the final decades of the twentieth century, have had bad press for a long time. Now they are fighting back as they come of age in a world radically changed from that experienced by previous generations.

'Even the oldest were still in primary school when the Soviet Union collapsed, when deregulation swept the West and much of the postwar consensus was jettisoned, when the Kyoto Protocol was signed and when the internet became a reality and the world shrank. They were in their teens when the World Trade Center collapsed, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan produced a new world order; when climate-change sceptics and shock jocks poisoned public debate; when the first dot-com boom crashed, China experimented with capitalism and revived consumerism, the global financial crisis pushed capitalism to the brink, and Facebook was born.

'The challenges this generation now face are great – political uncertainty, climate change, globalisation and economic stagnation have changed the rules of the game.

'This is the best educated, most connected generation ever, but the world they live in does not offer easy pathways – inequality is rife and traditional doors are closed. Some millennials are detached and disillusioned, but others are coming up with innovative ideas, experimenting with new ways to live and work. Their vision and energy will shape the future.

'This special edition of Griffith Review is devoted to the challenges and opportunities this generation is facing and embracing. It is co-edited by Julianne Schultz and Jerath Head.' (Website abstract)

'As a 19-year-old university student, Jack Manning Bancroft realised that education was the key to leading the most disadvantaged kids in Australia – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high school kids – out of inequality. He founded AIME, The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, with 25 Indigenous kids in Redfern. Twelve years on, more than 10,000 high school kids and 5,000 university students have been through the AIME program.

'In Australia, 75 per cent of non-Indigenous young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are in university, employment or further training – for Indigenous kids, this rate is only 40 per cent. Based at university campuses across Australia, AIME trains university students to become mentors, role models and education heroes to Indigenous school students. It’s now proven that Indigenous kids who complete the AIME program finish school and transition through to university, employment and further training at almost the same rate as every Australian child – effectively closing the gap. AIME now has its sights set on working with 10,000 kids a year by 2018 and helping close the educational gap in Australia forever. In 2017, the model has been launched across the globe.

'In Mentoring – The key to a fairer world, Jack and his collaborators – colleagues, mentors, former mentees, and supporters – reflect on the impact AIME has had in Australia, on their lives, the lives of the kids who completed the program and on the opportunities that lie ahead. This collection of essays shows us that it's possible to overcome the impossible, to tear down injustice, to change the world – all through one simple idea. ' (Publication summary)