15 / 36
E
MEET THE
CLASS OF 2019
ach year Beloit College in Wisconsin publishes a list of cultural facts unique
to the newest class of American college freshmen. So what has the Class of
2019 experienced (or not experienced) in their first 18 years of life?
Believe it or not, among those who have never been in their lifetime are Princess
Diana, Mother Teresa, rapper Notorious B.I.G. and underwater explorer Jacques
Cousteau.
Joining them in the world the year they were born were Dolly the sheep and The
McCaughey septuplets.
Since the Class of 2019 has been on the planet:
• Google has always been there.
• They have never licked a postage stamp.
• They have grown up treating Wi-Fi as an entitlement.
• Charlton Heston is recognized for waving a rifle over his head as much as
for waving his staff over the Red Sea.
• If you say “around the turn of the century,” they may ask you, “which one?”
• When they were born, cell phone usage was so expensive that families
only used their large phone, usually in cars, for emergencies. (Remember
those “bag phones?”)
• They had no idea how fortunate they were to enjoy the final four years of
federal budget surpluses.
That’s the world they grew up in. But what about the future? And what about the
CIU Class of 2019? While the culture may have tried to shape and mold them, their
priorities are not established in the shifting sands of the world, but on The Rock.
For them, the sky is the limit. Here are four examples.
Written by Melissa McCutchan | Photos by Christine Benz
15
CIU Today
www.ciu.edu