The Impressionability of Tomorrow’s Leaders is Today’s Leaders’ Responsibility.

I had big dreams as a child, bigger than I could ever wrap my adolescent brain around. I knew I wanted to do something great, something impactful, but I didn’t yet have the words to name who I wanted to become.

Growing up in a small town in the middle of nowhere, my vocabulary was limited to construction, deer hunting, and ice fishing. The most impactful careers I encountered were those of a teacher, a firefighter, and a doctor. I knew I wanted to make an impact just as meaningful, but I didn’t want to be a teacher, a firefighter, or a doctor.

Like many children, I lacked the vocabulary for what I wanted to do with my life because the words hadn’t been introduced to me yet. But what if, on career day, someone other than a townie had come to visit and shared their work with our young minds? Would I have learned the language to articulate who I wanted to be? Would I have been inspired to carve a path toward a career that genuinely fascinated me? Would I have been encouraged to fight for the life I so deeply desired—just a little earlier?

Understanding your power and the influence your career title carries is a job in itself. As leaders of today, you hold a responsibility to the leaders of tomorrow. Your presence, your words, and your story carry more weight than you may realize.

Raised in a safe household surrounded by country roads and cows, I was given stability, love, and tangible social structure. I was part of the last generation to experience childhood without technology. My access to information was limited to a small-town library and the wisdom of the adults I happened to encounter. I remember feeling frustrated—not because I lacked ambition, but because I lacked mentorship, vocabulary, and exposure to lives that sparked my curiosity.

My upbringing, though small and geographically distant from the life I imagined, is not the most critical matter at hand. What matters more is the opportunity leaders have today to reflect on the influence they wield simply by showing up in underprivileged environments.

If an outsider had looked at my childhood and the limits of my exposure, they might have assumed I would become a school teacher, or perhaps a stay-at-home mother married to a construction worker. That isn’t to say those lives lack value or fulfillment. But I would have grown up longing for myself—wishing I had been shown more, wishing I had been told I could be more.

To dismiss the impact of a leader’s presence in the lives of young minds is disingenuous. As we grow into adulthood, the environments we inhabit, the decisions we are forced to make, and the people we encounter shape who we become. When children grow up without positive, influential leaders, they often adopt the systems placed directly in front of them. I was lucky; I always dreamed beyond the stars. I imagined worlds I couldn’t yet see myself inside. I was creative, an outside thinker, and a fighter.

But many children are not afforded that luxury.

Young students in underprivileged communities across our nation are facing a quiet epidemic. Public schools surrounded by high crime rates often adopt zero-tolerance policies that punish survival rather than address need. You’ll hear stories of children stealing food because they’re hungry and being sent to juvenile detention for it. To the judges who make those decisions: how dare you.

Public schools with significant poverty representation are often underfunded, overcrowded, and understaffed, creating environments of disengagement, disillusionment, and despair. Under federal accountability policies — from No Child Left Behind to its successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act — students are still too often treated as liabilities when their test scores threaten already struggling schools. Not to be overlooked, the School-to-Prison Pipeline remains a national crisis demanding our attention.

When resources, inspiration, and hope are stripped away, the need for a leader to step in and say, “You can do this too,” becomes urgent. Volunteering your time at an underprivileged school may feel small, but it is the beginning of change—a change you can make today.

A child raised in a violent, gang-dominated neighborhood is statistically more likely to join a gang than graduate from college. A son raised working in his family’s construction business is more likely to become a construction worker than pursue a different profession. A daughter taught that survival depends on a man is more likely to prioritize marriage over her own potential.

As the saying goes, we do what we know—and that truth holds more weight than psychologists can quantify. Search engines may be limitless today, but it takes more than a Google search for a child to believe they can choose a different path. Children need to hear, explicitly and repeatedly be told, “You can do this too.” “You can be whatever you want to be.” “You can fight for the life you dream of.”

The impressionability of tomorrow’s leaders is the responsibility of today’s leaders. Talk to young minds. Share your career, your failures, and your path forward. Volunteer for career days in underprivileged schools. Stand in front of a classroom and say, “You can do this too!”

Even though I was privileged with safety and stability, I still wonder how different my life might look today if I had met someone whose career expanded my imagination. If that curiosity existed within me despite limited exposure, imagine the impact a single presence could have on a child who has never been told their life could look different.

As leaders of today, it is our responsibility to challenge the labels placed on children before they ever have the chance to define themselves. It is up to us to show, tell, and prove that young minds are capable of imagining beyond where they come from—beyond the systems that attempt to confine them. It is up to us to give our time, our stories, and our presence to someone who needs to hear, perhaps for the first time: You can do this too.