Available September 30, 2025
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Educators are always focused on ways to help students thrive as they move through the K-12 experience and beyond. But often, adolescence is framed as a period characterized by problems and challenges rather than a developmental moment that can be inherently powerful and positive. How do we reframe how we think about adolescence, how we build the student experience for teens, and how we can ensure students transition from our schools to higher education with a full sense of their own agency? George Abalekpor and Eleanor Daugherty of Georgetown University join host Debra P. Wilson to share their wisdom.
Debra, George, and Elly discuss a symposium that NAIS, Georgetown, and the Aspen Institute held in the spring of 2025, including what motivated the event, how they structured it, and what they learned. George and Elly also talk about how the Georgetown student affairs office works to improve the undergraduate experience by expanding opportunities for student voice and agency at different levels.
“No one grows up between grades 12 and 13,” Elly says, opening the conversation about the ways we often disenfranchise students as they transition between high school and college. She points to research showing that the adolescent brain needs more time to mature, while also sharing her view that traditionally, the education system thrusts teens into a posture of independent adulthood before that maturation can fully take place. The mismatch between our expectations and teens’ developmental readiness, along with concerns—especially coming out of the pandemic—about factors like declining mental health and loneliness, have led to a cultural tendency to problematize growing up.
But, as George says, approaching the challenges of adolescence from the opposite angle can have a powerful effect. He shares that during the symposium, and in much of the work done at Georgetown, the default position has been to assume that adolescents are capable, powerful, and motivated to contribute to solutions that will affect them. When students are given a platform on equal footing with adults, and conversations start with the assumption that they can and will contribute meaningfully, George says remarkable growth can happen. He also emphasizes the importance of creating joyful and welcoming spaces for youth to co-create with adults. Rather than beginning from a place of “solving the problems of adolescence,” he advocates for empowering students to envision positive systems and futures and asking them to help design the solutions that will get them there.
Key Questions
Some of the key questions Debra, George, and Elly explore in this episode include:
What are some of the motivations behind the symposium and the student thriving work that’s happening at Georgetown? What are the trends and attitudes driving this?
How are student voice and agency woven into the culture of thriving? What can schools do more of to help reframe adolescence?
What do we need to do to ensure that we’re really inviting teens to the table and truly empowering them to share their perspectives?
What are the takeaways that will help us to build the capacity of youth, and the systems around them, so they can become flourishing problem-solvers and leaders?
Episode Highlights
“We were concerned about reports that we were seeing from the surgeon general of increased loneliness, depression, potentially higher risk for suicidal behaviors among adolescents. And that care and concern, I think, was leading us to problematize growing up. And that's not true. Like, we have so much hope. This is why we are educators. We believe in the youth that we see every day.” (11:15)
“I will forever remember this student who said, ‘You keep asking me how I am, and then you correct my tone of voice.’ And just this idea of, we need to get over ourselves. If we want to truly and authentically connect and create scholarship and practice that is meaningful for today's adolescent, we need to listen a bit more and abandon a little bit the, ‘watch your tone of voice, young lady.’ Those little corrective behaviors are actually stifling the presence, the authentic presence of adolescents.” (22:05)
“I feel like there's sometimes this connotation that, oh, youth, they don't want to get involved in the schools. They don't want to participate in conversations like these. There is a huge desire for dialogue, especially intergenerational dialogue, dialogue with people who are not in your age group, people who are older, because there's learning to be done on both ends. So assume best intention and create spaces that are joyful, that will create the energy you want to bring out.” (25:16)
“So youth, I think more than anything, they want to feel as though their schooling matters. They want to feel that they are getting a sense of meaning and purpose in their education. And I think to tie it all together, I think co-creation is an answer to that solution. It's something that I think is tangible, can be honestly pretty easily developed in all educational spaces, and it allows for meaning because when you give youth an opportunity to be active participants in not just affecting policies, but affecting policies that specifically impact them and communities that they're involved in, there's automatically a sense of purpose that is attached to that.” (34:42)
Resource List
Read about Elly’s work in student affairs at Georgetown.
Learn about the work of the Aspen Institute's Center for Rising Generations.
See the Center for Rising Generations’ LinkedIn post about the April 2025 symposium.
Check out the Prisons and Justice Initiative, where George has done significant work as a Georgetown student.
Full Transcript
- Read the full transcript here.
Related Episodes
Episode 75: The Future of Smart
Episode 70: The Role of Schools in Cultivating Healthy Relationships
Episode 67: Leadership Through Listening
Episode 60: Student Voices on Learning Self-Reliance
Episode 59: School and the Emotional Lives of Teenagers
Episode 51: What Schools Can Do About Achievement Culture
Episode 40: Student Voice and Agency in Education
Episode 22: The Purpose and Nature of Higher Education
About Our Guests
George Abalekpor is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he majored in government with a certificate in African studies. He is currently a Hoya Fellow working with Georgetown’s vice president for student affairs, Dr. Eleanor JB Daugherty, supporting initiatives ranging from program assessment to equity in adolescent thriving and development.
Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, George became invested in the pursuit of equity and justice in high school when he did research about his home state’s overcrowded prisons. At Georgetown, George worked as a student associate and tutor for Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, where he supported incarcerated and returning citizens in their educational endeavors. He also advised his peers as a member of the Student Advocacy Office and worked to expand access to career readiness resources as a counselor at Georgetown’s career center.
Upon completion of his Hoya Fellowship, George plans to attend law school, where he will continue advocating for equitable approaches to reshaping systems that form and impact youth.
Eleanor JB Daugherty, an advocate for student well-being and equity with 25 years of experience in higher education, has joined Georgetown as the new vice president for student affairs.
“For more than two decades, Dr. Daugherty has engaged in all aspects of student life from admissions to advising as well as alumni relations at multiple institutions,” Georgetown President John J. DeGioia said. “She shares a deep knowledge of the student experience and unwavering care for students’ well-being.”
Daugherty previously served as associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Connecticut. In that role, she oversaw departments responsible for residential life, student conduct, student health, and mental well-being services. Prior to that, Daugherty served in a variety of student life, alumni affairs, and admission roles at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan. She holds doctorate and master’s of education degrees from Columbia University and a bachelor’s from the University of Chicago.